Make Believe 3: Family
by Rose Stetson
Summary: Part III of the series started with "Make Believe". The O'Neills are together after nearly nine months apart while Sam is on extended leave from the George Hammond while it undergoes repairs. A few weeks isn't enough to change their family dynamic, is it?
1. Leave

**Chapter 1: Leave**

The sound of "Wild Blue Yonder" came from Sam's phone as she cooked the spaghetti. She smiled softly. Sometime since she'd been deployed on the _Hammond_, someone had taught him how to program ringtones into cell phones, and he'd used his new skill the moment they'd turned her service back on.

She reached for the phone as she took the wooden spoon from the red sauce she'd been stirring. "Carter," she greeted, efficiently.

"Colonel Carter, it's Dr. Montgomery. I was hoping to speak to you about the maintenance work on the _George Hammond_."

She stopped what she was doing before resting her backside against the counter. She perched the phone between the crook of her neck and her ear as she wiped her hands on the hand towel. "Of course." She finished with the towel, and put it back on the rack before she caught the phone with her hand again. "What's going on?" She asked, soberly.

"Between the repairs we need to make to get it back like new and the upgrades we were already planning on making, it will take an extra month."

"A month?" She asked as her eyebrows shot up.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I recognize you're a talented engineer and scientist, but…"

"I got it." She grinned. "Your team's got it under control."

"Yes, ma'am, we do." He chuckled.

"Keep me updated." She smiled.

"Will do."

She hung up the phone with a small sigh as the door to the town home opened.

"Honey, I'm ho-ome!" Jack announced in a sing-songy voice as he walked into the kitchen.

"Hi, Jack," Sam smiled as she leaned in and kissed him quickly.

"Hm, spaghetti." He said, inhaling. "My favorite."

She turned back to stirring the spaghetti sauce with a pensive look on her face. "It'll be ready in a few minutes."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, noticing the look on her face.

She looked over, about to deny that something was on her mind before she sighed. "There's nothing…wrong…per se…"

"Okay…"

"But the _George Hammond _needs some pretty extensive repairs and upgrades."

"Oh? I thought you were doing pretty well on the "not getting shot" front."

She smiled appreciatively. "It's true, but we're still not perfect."

"So, what's the problem?"

"We're going to be here for an extra month."

"Again, I say, what's the problem?"

"Ten total weeks of leave?" Sam asked with her brow furrowed. "Don't get me wrong – I love to spend time with you, but…"

"You're afraid you'll have nothing to do."

She winced. "I'm not good with free time."

"What free time?" Jack teased.

"My point, exactly," she smiled.

"You know, you need a hobby."

She raised an eyebrow. "Um-hm…"

"What? You do!"

"I already started playing the cello, Jack. What else do you want?" She asked with an amused smile.

He laughed. "Something that doesn't screech when you practice."

She playfully hit him with a wet dish towel. "And what exactly do you recommend, o genius one," she teased as she returned to stirring the spaghetti sauce.

"I don't know. Painting. Knitting."

She looked up at her husband. "Knitting…"

"What? I hear that some women like it."

"And you can picture me…knitting…"

"Um…"

She offered him the wooden spoon from the spaghetti sauce. "Taste this."

He did so. "Yum, that's good."

She tasted it herself with a critical look in her eye. "I just, I don't know…it's missing something…"

"Maybe a little salt?"

"Could be," she said, nodding. She retrieved the salt shaker and quickly added another dash before stirring the sauce and tasting it again. She nodded in approval before she looked back at him after a moment. "I'm just teasing you. I was actually thinking of volunteering at the local elementary school."

"That's a good idea." He agreed.

"It wouldn't be too weird?" She asked, curiously. "I mean...since I don't have kids, and it would just be a temporary thing?"

"Hey, I used to volunteer at the school in the Springs even after Cassie moved up to Middle and High school."

She nodded somewhat pensively.

"Besides, I think it would be good for you."

"I think so too." She agreed. "I could tutor some of the kids in science or math."

"Watch out world. The test scores would be through the roof almost instantly."

"Stop." She laughed as she pulled down a couple of plates. "Come on, let's have dinner."

He grinned as he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "Have I told you how much I love you, Mrs. O'Neill?"

She bit her lip with a smile. "Not today," she grinned.

"Or how much I miss you when you're gone," he murmured as he trailed kisses up to her ear.

"Stop that," she giggled as she tried to wriggle out of his reach. "I spent all day cooking, and you have one thing on your mind…"

"Never bothered you before," he whispered with his hot breath on her ear.

"I told you before," she chuckled as she turned around to wrap her arms around his neck. "Things tend to burn around me…"

"Then, let's take stuff off the stove. And heat it up in the microwave later." Jack murmured as he reached for the saucepan, pulling it off the heat. "Much later…"

"This is where I melt and say "Take me, I'm yours", isn't it?" She teased.

"Wouldn't hurt." He chuckled.

She shook her head with an amused smile. "Come on, General," she said as she turned around and switched the stove top off before she reached for his hand.

"Yes, ma'am," he grinned, excitedly.

She snickered as he followed her into the bedroom.


	2. Grace

**Chapter 2: Grace**

Sam walked into the elementary school, somewhat nervously.

"May I help you?" A woman asked from behind the receptionist desk as she checked in.

"I was hoping to volunteer…"

"Oh, are you a parent?"

Sam's smile fell as she shook her head. "No. My husband and I are…newly married, and, uh, I'm an Air Force officer. I have some leave, and I thought that I might…"

"Volunteer to fill up your days?" She asked with a knowing smile.

"Exactly." Sam chuckled.

"Well, actually, we have a number of programs available. We're looking for someone to come in and read to the kindergartners."

"That might be fun."

"We're also looking for someone who can tutor science and math for all grade levels."

"I'm a physicist. Science and math are my specialties." She continued.

"How much time do you need to fill?" The woman asked with twinkling eyes.

She managed a chagrined smile. "A lot. My husband's, uh, working in the Pentagon."

"My husband's a Congressional aide," she grinned. "I understand."

Sam laughed.

"Listen, I'll take you to the library, and you can read to the kindergartners who show up in ten minutes." She said, walking around the desk.

"Are you sure? That's all I have to do?"

"Well, you'll need to talk to the librarian if you come back more than once, but I'll keep an eye on you for the next half-hour." She offered her hand in greeting. "I'm Sonya Martinez. I'm the principal."

"Samantha C..." She stopped herself. "O'Neill. New volunteer."

"Nice to meet you," Sonya smiled. "Samantha O'Neill."

"Nice to meet you too." Sam grinned.

"Shall we go meet the kindergartners?"

"Lead the way," Sam joked as she motioned dramatically toward the door.

"I want to warn you. There's a girl in this class, who is new to the school."

"Okay."

"She's a little shy, but she's been through a lot, and the counselor suggested that we don't push her too much right now."

Sam nodded. "Of course."

The kindergarten class filed past them, and Sam watched them each with a curious eye. She inhaled as she saw a face that made her raise her eyebrows in surprise. The six-year-old girl with sad brown eyes and long, unruly brown curly hair wearing a sundress that was slightly too big for her caught Sam's attention, curiously.

"_Eat. You need to keep your strength up." The little girl said after a moment._

"_Do you have a name?" Sam asked, looking at the apparition._

_Grace smiled. "I'm Grace."_

_Sam looked at the little girl in the haze of hallucination. "Who are you?"_

"_You know." She said, coyly._

"Samantha?" Sonya asked, looking over at her.

"Hm?" She asked, pulling herself from her reverie.

"Is something wrong?"

"Who is that girl?" Sam asked, discreetly pointing to the Grace look-a-like.

"That's the girl I was talking about. Her name's Grace."

Sam looked over in surprise. "Grace?"

Sonya nodded. "Her parents were in an accident. They died, and she's been placed in her first foster home."

Sam tensed. "Really?"

"They're a great couple," Sonya said, softly. "Hopefully, she'll find a good adoptive family soon."

"What are her chances?"

"Rather slim, honestly. At least, according to statistics."

"She's a cute girl. She probably has higher chances than most," Sam said, hopefully.

"You'd be surprised how many "cute" kids are in foster care from the time they're two to the time they're emancipated."

"It's that bad?" Sam asked after a moment.

"Unfortunately," Sonya said with a small sigh. "Yes. If you're not a baby in foster care, your chances decrease exponentially."

Sam nodded slowly as she looked back at the little girl who played with the hem of her dress as she sat on the rug.

"I should probably start the story…" Sam said, looking over at her companion.

Sonya nodded. "That would probably be wise."

The librarian handed her a book. "You're the reader for today?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Excellent." She grinned. "And you are?"

"Samantha O'Neill."

"Wonderful. I'll introduce you to the kids, and then you can start the story." She said, leading her to the circle. "I'm Harriet."

"Nice to meet you, Harriet."

They reached the circle, and Sam looked around at each of the children. Grace's head was still bowed, and she looked at her hands.

Sam swallowed, worriedly, as Harriet made a quick introduction. "So, let's welcome Mrs. O'Neill," Harriet said, clapping her hands to signal applause from the kids.

Sam sat down in the chair with the book in her hand. "Hi, kids. Well, I have a story here that I think you'll enjoy." She looked at the book. "Franklin and the Thunderstorm."

Grace finally looked up at Sam with tear-shaped eyes that reminded her of Cassandra's eyes when they'd first met her. Sam felt a tug at her heart-strings as she began reading the story to the small children. Yep. She really would talk to Jack when she got home.

-

Sam stood in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee as she wondered how she would bring the subject of Grace with her husband. She was rarely on Earth, and while he lived on Earth, he was rarely home because of his Pentagon responsibilities. One or the other or both of them would need to drastically change their lifestyle in order to accommodate the six-year-old girl.

The door opened from downstairs, and Sam looked over to see her husband walking up the stairs. "Hey!" He said with a grin as he caught her eye.

"Hi." She said with a small, but distracted, smile.

He set his briefcase down in the living room before he looked over at her. "What's going on?"

"I went to volunteer at the elementary school today."

"Good for you." He grinned. "Have fun?"

She nodded. "Yeah. The kids were sweet. I read to the kindergarten class."

"Sounds like a good time." He said reaching for a cup which he filled with the leftover coffee in the pot.

"Oh, it was." She assured, absently.

"So, what's the problem?"

She looked over at him. "Do you remember the time seven years ago or so when I was stuck on the Prometheus?"

"In the nebula?"

She nodded.

"Yeah. I remember."

"I told you about the hallucinations I had while I was aboard ship, right?"

"Yeah."

"There was a little girl..."

"You called her Grace."

She nodded. "She had long brown curly hair and brown eyes. She liked to play with bubbles. She recited "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" like my mother used to read to me."

"Okay..."

She looked at him in all seriousness. "I met her today. In real life."

His eyebrows shot up.

"She was one of the kindergartners I read to. And she's been recently orphaned."

"Oh, no..." Jack said, shaking his head as he understood where she was going.

"I haven't even said anything yet, Jack!"

"Yeah, but you're going to. And no."

"Jack, she's a little girl, and she could use our help." She insisted.

"There are a lot of kids in her position, Sam. And we can't help them all."

"Look, Jack, I know it sounds silly, but that hallucination or angel or whatever…saved my life." Sam explained. "And, I," she bit her lip before she looked up at him. "I feel like I- like I owe her something for that."

"It wasn't her."

"Then explain why she looks exactly like the girl I saw. And has the exact same name as the girl I hallucinated."

"Maybe you're wrong. Maybe she just looks moderately like the girl you envisioned…"

Sam closed her eyes with a small sigh. "You don't want to do this."

"No." Jack protested. "I just don't want you to get your hopes up. Adoption takes forever and it can get expensive."

"And?"

"And we might lose her anyway."

"Sonya told me…"

"Sonya gave you the odds." Jack interrupted. "You know better than most that when the odds seem astronomical, sometimes, they tip in your favor."

"You mean that she might get adopted under our noses."

"Exactly."

"What if the odds were to tip in our favor, Jack?" Sam asked after a moment. "It is possible. It's happened on more than one occasion."

"Sam…"

"Can we just look into it?" Sam sighed.

Jack sighed. "We'll look." He agreed.

"Thank you." She huffed. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I've had a long day, and I think I need a nap."

"Let me come with…" He said, following her.

Sam turned and raised her hand in a "halt" motion, causing him to stop in his tracks. "I don't think so. I need some time alone."

Jack watched his wife leave, more than a little perplexed by her behavior. What exactly had he done wrong?

-

He waited an hour before he walked into the bedroom and sat beside her on the bed. As he had anticipated, she wasn't asleep, just lying on the bed as she stared up at the ceiling somewhat abstractly.

"I'm sorry." He finally sighed.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm getting too emotional about this whole thing."

"Emotional isn't necessarily a bad thing." He said, looking over at her as he placed a gentle hand on her knee.

"Right..." She said, sarcastically.

"I got scared by the process of adoption." He admitted after a moment.

Sam looked up at him, confused. "What? Why?"

"Because when you have a baby the "old-fashioned way", no one can say "no"."

"You're afraid they'll say no because of your past."

"Not just mine."

Her brow furrowed. "What?"

"There's more to this background check than worrying about what they say about how Charlie died. Because of my work, my background has been scrubbed, and thanks to Pete, we know that yours is pretty much the same." He reminded her.

Her face fell. "They're going to say "no" because they can't look at our past..."

"They don't like giving kids to people they know nothing about." He said, soberly.

She tensed. "Then, I guess I really should just...kiss this all good-bye."

He shook his head. "No, Sam, I promised you that we'd look into it, and we will."

"I know we're going to need to change if we want to make this an attractive idea for the social workers." She admitted. "So, I'm...thinking of putting in for reassignment. They can station me at Andrews or at the Pentagon..."

"Is this what you want?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. "You've made sacrifices for this to work. Now, it's my turn."

"You're sure?"

"Yep."

"And if they turn you down?"

"Then they turn me down." She sighed. "I haven't come up with a Plan B yet."

"Then, maybe you should let me help you think of one," he said with an affectionate smile as he leaned down to kiss her gently.

He looked into her eyes for a moment after he released her lips from his own. "Hey..."

"Hm?" She asked, looking up, curiously.

"I love you."

She smiled softly. "Love you too."


	3. Angel

Sam walked into the kitchen, somewhat nervously. A whole week had passed since they'd last talked about Grace, and she was a little worried that Jack had since changed his mind about at least trying to adopt the little girl.

"Jack?" She murmured as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Hm?" He asked, reading a newspaper as he drank one of his own.

"I'm...going to the elementary school to read again today. It's the kindergarten class again." She bit her lip. "Two days ago, when I went and read last, I got a chance to talk to Grace. She's really a very sweet and special girl. I think you'd like her."

He looked up at her for a moment. "I'm sure I will. I happen to be fond of kids."

She tried to muster a small smile, but it wavered for a few moments. "You know...you could come with me. And meet her..."

"What time?"

"Uh...her class comes in at eleven."

"Can't today. Meeting with the Joint Chiefs at 10:30 and with Barrett at 1."

Her heart fell. He wasn't interested at all in even meeting Grace. Why would she think that he was interested in adopting her?

She turned her face from him as she pretended to look out the kitchen window and drink her coffee. A long silence reigned as she tried to remind herself that he always had a good reason for doing something. Even if it didn't feel right to her. Didn't seem to be anything more than accident.

"We could probably make contact with her foster parents and see if we can't meet her in a different environment from the school. They might even allow us to take her for ice cream or to the zoo or a museum..." Jack finally said after a moment. "I could take the afternoon off one of these days. Probably next Thursday. Thursday would be best for me."

"I'll see what I can do," she said, looking over at him with a faint smile. That was her husband...thinking things through carefully, but always coming through in the end.

-

Sam took her husband's hand as he helped her to step out of the car. He'd come home at two-thirty after his meetings at the Pentagon, changed into civilian clothes, and taken her to Grace Taylor's foster home. "You ready for this?" She asked, softly.

"As I'll ever be..." He murmured.

She looked over at him, curiously, and he shrugged. "I'm...a little nervous." He admitted.

"She's adorable." Sam assured. "She's shy. About as shy as Cassie was when she first got here. She likes to read. She's always got a book in her hand. Even when I'm reading, she has something different in her hand."

He studied her for a moment, affectionately. "You really like her, don't you?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I guess I do."

He took her hand in his as they walked up the rest of the way to the door of the house, and Jack knocked firmly on the door.

A short, blond woman opened the door cautiously before smiling. "You must be the O'Neills."

"We are." Jack said, nodding as he took off his sunglasses.

"I'm Suzanne Harper. Grace's foster mom."

Sam smiled softly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"And you. Come on in." She said, opening the door more widely before she closed the door behind them. "Grace will be here in a few minutes, but I thought that maybe we could get to know each other for a little bit while we're waiting for her?"

Sam nodded. "Sure." She looked at Jack for a moment. "Uh...my husband and I have been married for...a little less than a year, but we've known each other for nearly fourteen. I have some leave from the Air Force, and I decided to start volunteering at the elementary school in an effort to get involved in the community. I met Grace, and thought she was really special, and now...we're here. Thinking about adopting her."

"Do you have any children from previous marriages?" Suzanne asked, innocently.

Jack tensed slightly before he shook his head. "No."

"Oh."

"This is my first marriage," Sam explained. "And Jack's first marriage ended in divorce. It...uh...it's not something he likes to talk about."

"Of course." She said, nodding. "My brother and his wife got divorced a few years ago, and it was a sticky situation."

Light footsteps could be heard on the wooden floors, and they all turned to catch a glimpse of the little girl who was responsible for them. Grace stopped only a few feet away from them, dressed in overalls, a turtleneck, and socks. Her curly brown hair was separated into two pigtails on either side of her head, and as Sam had observed previously, she had a book clutched in one hand which she kept at her side. She studied Sam and Jack carefully with wide hazel eyes.

"Mrs. O'Neill?" She asked, looking over at Sam.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. This is my husband, Mr. O'Neill."

Grace turned her eyes to him as she pursed her lips in concentration. It was as if she was making a decision, and needed to focus her energies on the task at hand.

Finally, she took a few steps toward the Lieutenant General, and grasped his hand with her free one, gently dragging him to the couch.

Sam and Suzanne watched in surprise.

"Do you like to read, Mr. O'Neill?"

"I do." He answered as they walked through the living room.

Grace quickly climbed up onto the couch, and patted the seat beside her.

Jack sat down in the appointed seat, and she pulled the arm closest to her around her miniature frame before she gave him the book. "Will you please read this to me? I'd do it myself, but the some of the words are too big."

Jack's face softened into a small smile. "Sure."

"Do you want some coffee?" Suzanne asked as she looked over at Sam.

Sam turned her attention from the scene before she nodded. "Sure."

A few moments later, Sam was watching Jack read the story to Grace in the living room over the kitchen counter as Suzanne finished preparing the coffee maker.

Finally, Suzanne stepped over to stand beside Sam as they watched.

"She's never taken to anyone that quickly." She admitted.

Sam turned. "Huh?"

"She's very shy. And very precocious." Suzanne explained. "She takes a long time to warm up to people. In fact, I'm not sure she's ever asked Barry or me to read her a story since she got here."

"So, she already knew how to read when she first got here?" Sam asked, surprised.

Suzanne nodded. "I think she had parents who taught her flashcards or something..."

"Ah."

"Your husband is very good with children." She said after a long pause.

Sam smiled. "Yes, he is."

"And he never had any of his own?"

Sam tensed before inhaling softly. "There was...an accident. His only son died when he was ten."

"That's awful."

She nodded, absently. "That was just about fifteen years ago."

They lulled into a pause, and could hear Grace's soft giggles as Jack managed, almost miraculously, to pull her from her shell withthe goofy voices he used to accompany the story of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

"So, why Grace?" Suzanne asked after a few moments. "I mean, Sonya said you'd seemed to recognize her when you first saw her."

Sam inhaled slowly. "Do you...believe in miracles? Angels?"

"I do." She said, soberly.

Sam looked surprised, and Suzanne continued. "My husband, Barry, was in a scuba diving accident about...oh, six years ago, or so. He should have died with the amount of time that he was in the water, fighting against the elements. He should have drowned, having lost consciousness a long time before...but he said that there was...a little girl. She called herself "Grace", and she talked to him. Got him to save himself, basically."

Sam's eyebrows shot up.

"When Grace came to live with us, he turned to me, and he said that she looked familiar."

"She'd been the girl he'd talked to?"

She nodded. "What about you?"

"Well, in my line of work, there are a lot of things that can go wrong..." Sam began. "A lot of chances to think that something's real when it's not..."

"And?"

"About...six years ago...I was in one of those situations. I was stranded, and I saw hallucinations of my team members, and my...husband, though we weren't married at the time. But there was this...girl..."

"Who called herself Grace and looked exactly like her?"

"Yeah." Sam admitted.

Suzanne smiled. "Then, I hope everything works out for you guys."

Sam bit her lip. "Me too."

-

They were silent on the drive home. They hadn't left the Harper residence with Grace, only spent a few hours reading to her and talking to her. Sam was deep in thought as she watched the scenery pass.

"Something wrong?" Jack asked, looking over at her as they walked in the door.

"I don't believe in angels." She murmured, pensively.

He raised an eyebrow. "Neither do I. What's the deal?"

She looked over at him, almost realizing for the first time that she'd actually spoken aloud. "Oh...nothing..."

"Don't nothing me," he teased softly as he placed the keys on the table in the entry way. "I can see the wheels turning in your head."

"Grace...she apparently saved more than just me that year."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Apparently, she helped Suzanne's husband when he was in a scuba diving accident."

"Right..." He said, skeptically.

"Jack. You and I both know there could be any number of explanations for this..."

"Like?"

"Well, she never ACTUALLY told either of us what to do. Just helped us figure it out on our own. She can read, but she's just barely five years old. And she has parents who mysteriously died in a car accident, leaving her without any family whatsoever."

"And..."

"Maybe she's an Ancient."

"Right..." Jack said, sarcastically.

"It's not impossible, is it? I mean, they've come down in child form before..."

"And what? She just felt like doing the human thing again?"

"I don't know, but maybe we don't have to know. Maybe we just need to know that she's an Ancient."

"We don't even know that!" Jack cried. "And quite frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to know that."

"Why not?"

"Because she'd be taken off to Area 51 before you could say "we'd like to adopt her"."

"Not necessarily..."

"Sam, deciding that she's an Ancient could only bring pain to that little girl's life. Suddenly, people from all over the galaxy would be trying to kidnap her from us, and use her for their own purposes."

She looked away.

"Look, I get it. It's a mystery, and your job...your passion...is to make the mysterious seem less...well, mysterious...but maybe that's what we shouldn't do."

She inhaled as she looked back at him.

"Sam, if by some miracle, we are able to adopt her, she'll be in enough danger with our positions."

Sam nodded, slowly.

"But if we tell people that we think she's an Ancient? First of all, we make the ascended beings more than a little peeved that we figured it out. Second of all, we freak Danny and the rest of the SGC personnel out, thinking that there's some...Ancient Armageddon...going on, and thirdly, we open up a can of worms that is nothing but a bad dream."

"You're right." She admitted, though she didn't really want to admit that she was wrong.

He walked over and rubbed her arms with his hands, gently, as he looked into her eyes. "On a more positive note...I like her."

Sam managed a small smile. "I knew you would."

"And I think she likes me too."

"Suzanne said she hadn't taken to anyone as well as she took to you in all of the time that she'd been with them."

"She's a cute kid."

Sam nodded. "Yep."

"Now...dinner?"

She smiled warmly. "Sounds good."


	4. Dreams

"I want to see the monkeys!" Grace cried, spying the primate house at the zoo. She tugged on Sam's hand, causing the Colonel to chuckle softly.

"Slow down, kiddo. We'll see the monkeys!" She promised.

The five-year-old looked up at her with a grin on her face before she turned back to Jack, who was lagging just a few steps behind them. "Hurry up! We're going to see the monkeys!"

Sam turned back to look at her husband. "How's the knee?"

"Protesting." He admitted. "But okay."

"You sure?"

He nodded as he caught up with them. "Let's go see those monkeys."

"I'll walk slower." Grace promised.

"No need to do that." Jack laughed. "I'll catch up with you sooner or later."

"But I want to see all of the monkeys with you!" She pouted slightly.

He chuckled softly. "All right, all right...we'll walk slower." He said, picking her up and easily swinging her onto his shoulders.

Sam watched carefully, ready to catch the giggling five-year-old or the seemingly invincible fifty-year-old if something went wrong, but despite her readiness, she had to smile as Grace grinned from her perch atop the shoulders of the six-foot-two-inch tall, silver-haired Lieutenant General.

"We're fine, Carter." He teased, softly.

Sam managed a small smile of chagrin. "Sorry, Jack."

"Why'd you call her "Carter"?" Grace asked as they all began their trek to the Primate House.

"That's what I used to call her when we first met." He said, simply.

"Before I married him, that was my last name." Sam explained.

"Oh."

Sam smiled, looking up at the little girl and then back to the path on which they were walking.

"Mr. O'Neill?" Grace asked as they got into the exhibit. "Can you please put me down? I want to see the monkeys up close!"

"Only if you start to call me Jack."

"Okay, Mr. Jack." She said as he helped her to the floor.

Sam had to stifle a laugh. Grace's tone had been so serious that she wasn't sure if the little girl would appreciate the heart chuckle that she was about to impart.

"It's just...Jack..." Her husband murmured as Grace flew to one of the windows which revealed a gorilla in one of the exhibits.

"I don't think she heard you," Sam laughed as she looped her arms around one of his, cuddling up to him for a moment.

"Yeah, well...at least I tried." He shrugged.

"I think it's cute." Sam winked as they caught up to Grace.

"He's looking at me!" She cried, excitedly turning back toward them.

"Sure is." Jack smiled, wryly. "I think he's just happy he found another monkey.

"I'm not a monkey!" She protested indignantly.

Sam watched her husband with interest as he responded.

"What? You're not a monkey?"

She shook her head, seriously, as her curly ponytail fluttered behind her with the movement.

"My apologies, little miss." He said, bowing low before he reached his long arms to her and tickled her with his deft fingers.

She was giggling almost instantly.

"Stop," she managed several moments later, breathless from laughing so hard. "I have to go to the bathroom!"

Sam chuckled as Jack set Grace back on the ground. "Come on," she said, offering Grace her hand. "I'll take you."

"I'll walk with you," Jack offered.

"Don't worry about it." Sam said, shaking her head affectionately. She knew that he rarely liked to admit when his knee was bothering him, so the fact that he had been noticeably lagging behind them because of its stiffness had her more than a little concerned. "We'll meet you back here with the rest of your kind," she teased as she leaned in and offered him a quick peck on the lips before she turned to go.

"Oh, nice. Insult me and kiss me all at the same time."

She turned back to him and offered him a flirtatious wink before she added a little extra sway to her hips as she walked away.

It was only a few minutes before Sam and Grace reached the bathrooms. Sam moved to the side to wait as Grace quickly slipped into one of the empty stalls. The wait was short, and Grace walked out of the stall as a toilet flushed behind her. Sam walked over to her as she walked up to the sink and put her hands up to turn on the water. With a small smile when she saw that Grace was too short, Sam reached her hands around the girl's torso, and easily helped to lift her the extra few inches so that she could turn the water on and reach for the soap. She won a grateful smile as she looked in the mirror at Grace's reflection, and Sam returned it with a grin of her own.

She lowered her to the ground before reaching for a few paper towels from the nearby dispenser, and offering them to Grace who was rubbing her wet hands together.

"Thank you," she said before expertly drying every inch of her hands with the paper towels before she reached up and threw them away.

She turned back to Sam, and motioned for her to come closer as she curled her index finger back toward herself.

Though somewhat surprised, Sam did as she was bade, and suddenly felt Grace kiss her cheek and wrap her short arms around the taller woman's neck in as large a hug as she could muster.

Sam quickly recovered enough to return the gentle hug before Grace let go a few moments later.

"I'm glad you're going to be my new mommy." She said with a satisfied smile as she took Sam's hand and began walking toward the exit.

Sam blinked, unable to respond for a few moments as they walked. Finally, she stopped by a bench, and pulled Grace toward her.

"What?" The five-year-old asked, confused.

"Grace, what...what makes you think that I'm going to be your new mommy?" Sam asked, soberly.

"You're going to adopt me." She said, matter-of-factly. "You and Mr. Jack."

"Well, we're going to try," she admitted. "But there are a lot of people who could say "no"...even though Jack and I want to adopt you very much."

"But they won't." Grace said, confidently.

"Unfortunately, Grace...they might." Sam said, pragmatically.

"They won't." She said, shaking her head, stubbornly.

Sam inhaled. Going rounds with the little girl would do nothing but frustrate them both. Finally, she looked back at Grace. "What makes you say that they're not going to say no?"

"I had a dream."

Sam raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"I had a dream." She repeated.

"Where you saw them say yes..." Sam said, skeptically.

"Don't you ever get dreams?" Grace asked, frustrated.

"Yes, but..."

"Well, I do too. And in my dream, there was a judge who told you and Mr. Jack to take me home because I belonged with you."

"And I want that to happen too," Sam said, seriously. "In fact, I've had dreams about it too, but that's what they are...dreams."

Grace sighed the heavy sigh to which only children could do justice. "In my dream, Mr. Jack said that George Hammond didn't need you anymore. They had a new commander, and you had been...re...uh...reass..."

"Reassigned?" Sam asked with wide eyes. How could Grace have known about her position on the _George Hammond_? How could she have known that she'd put in for reassignment?

"Yeah. That."

"What other dreams have you had, Grace?"

Grace shook her head vehemently, and Sam saw a monocle of fear slowly growing in the child's eye.

"Grace, I'm not going to hurt you..." She reasoned, more gently. "But I need to know...what other dreams have you had?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Grace whispered with a trembling lip as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Sam swallowed. "Grace, did you know about your parents' accident before it happened?"

Grace was silent as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"What's going on?" Jack asked as he approached.

"Jack..." Sam said, softly.

"I saw you two standing over here. Thought I'd come to you..."

Sam opened her mouth to explain before Grace broke into a run, flinging herself into Jack's arms as she began to cry.

Jack looked over at Sam, confused, as he began to comfort the little girl who was crying with her face buried in his shoulder as she hugged his neck tightly.

"Jack, I think...as unbelievable as it sounds coming from me...I think she's..."

"She's what?"

Sam swallowed. "Clairvoyant," she whispered, discreetly.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise.


	5. Faith

"Are you sure about this?" Jack asked after they'd gotten Grace calmed down enough to take her home, dropped her off at her home, and begun their drive to their own townhome.

"Jack, she said she was glad I was going to be her new mommy."

He sighed softly as he looked over at her, knowing how much she wanted this. "Sam..."

"I know." She interrupted, defensively, like she often did when her knowledge of physics wasn't enough to explain some phenomena out in the field. "I tried to explain that while we would love to adopt her, there are a lot of people who could say no." She swallowed. "But she insisted that she was right, and that no one would say no."

"And that's what made her so upset?"

She shook her head. "I asked why she was so sure, and she said that she'd had a dream. One where a judge told us to take her home because we belonged together."

"Sounds like a normal...everyday...adoption fantasy for a girl who's hoping for some stability."

"That's what I thought too." She admitted. "Until she told me that you would say something about George Hammond not needing me, a new commander, and reassignment..."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously, she had some things a little off...I mean, the real George Hammond is dead, but she probably didn't know that you were talking about a ship." She explained, earnestly.

"I think you're reaching." He said, giving her a slightly apologetic smile.

"I asked her if she'd had any other dreams like that one, and she refused to talk." Sam explained as if she was explaining some theoretical principle of astrophysics. "Then, I asked her if she'd seen her parents' accident before it happened, and she became hysterical. That's when you showed up."

He inhaled slowly. "Sam...what makes you think this could work? I mean, you didn't believe it when Jonas..."

"That was different." Sam said, soberly.

"Is it?"

"Look, I'm still somewhat skeptical about its accuracy. I mean...it shouldn't be possible to predict anything with one-hundred percent accuracy. You would have to know the placement of...every atom...in the entire universe. And, like we saw when I got hurt on the base and ended up fulfilling the prophecy that Jonas was trying to avoid, we could turn some of these into self-fulfilling prophecies if we take them as the gospel truth..."

"But..."

"But I'm also a bit older and wiser now, Jack, and...I'm a little more willing to accept that I don't know everything..."

"This has something to do with that seer you encountered on Atlantis, doesn't it?"

"And if it does?" Sam asked, eyebrows raised.

"Sam..."

"Jack, there are bigger things out there than us. We've fought a few of them, and we've befriended some of them, but there's a whole UNIVERSE out there that we know next to nothing about." She said, passionately. "Is it so crazy to believe that we don't know everything? That our very limited knowledge of astrophysics and the way that everything works is just the tip of the iceberg?"

"So, we're taking this one faith. Not evidence."

She sighed. "It's a relatively new thing I've decided to start trying."

"So I noticed." He sighed as he began emptying out the dishwasher.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, following him.

"Nothing." He said, shaking his head.

"No, you meant something by that, and I want to know what you meant."

"Look, I told you it wasn't a problem before we got married, and you said I wouldn't have to go with you. That's our deal, and I'm holding you to it."

"Our deal...about church? What on EARTH does that have to do with this?"

"Everything, Sam. You're a scientist. Until a few years ago, you didn't accept anything that wasn't proven with numbers or facts...you were the most skeptical person on our team. Now, you're into all sorts of spiritual enlightenment."

"It's not uncommon for scientists to believe that there's something else out there..."

"Yes, but not many have had the Ori on their back, preaching to them."

Sam's eyes widened in surprise. "You think this is because of the ORI?"

"Well, you found religion about the same time the Ori showed up..."

"Actually, Jack, it was a year and a half after the Ori showed up. AND after I'd been close to death. Those tend to change your feelings about the "hereafter" more than a few sermons." She challenged.

"Look, I know what it's like to want something to fix or explain everything bad in your life. To comfort you and make you feel better, but..."

"You think that's what this is?" She demanded.

He closed his mouth.

"No, really...I want to know if you think that's what this is. Just some lame attempt to take the pain away if we don't get Grace..."

He inhaled before looking over at her. "You haven't been to mass or confession as often as you have since you got back from the _George Hammond._ And we started thinking about adopting Grace about the same time."

"Maybe that's just a coincidence."

"Is it?"

"I do have more time to fill right now, Jack."

He sighed. "Fine. I'm wrong."

"So...you don't believe Grace is a seer because you think I'm giving up my sense of self or because you're jealous of God?" She asked after a moment.

"What? I'm not jealous of..."

"Then what?" Sam asked, soberly. "What threatens you about the fact that I've decided to take a few things on faith, hm? You did it all the time. In fact, you still do it all the time."

"No, I don't." He said, looking back at her from his task. "In case you've forgotten, I'm flying a desk at the moment."

"Then, you're doing every job under your command? You must be a very busy man, Jack." She shot back, angrily.

"Of course not, but..."

"Again, I ask...what part of this threatens you?" She demanded. "Why does my belief or faith in the unexplained make you feel so defensive?"

"I'm not defensive!" He roared.

"That's not up for debate. Any reasonable person would see that you're being defensive. So...now, the question is why."

He heaved a heavy sigh as he turned back to the dishwasher, silently pulling glasses and plates from inside it.

"Jack, please..." She whispered more softly. "I'm just trying to understand..."

"I'm not defensive about anything." Jack growled with his back toward her.

Sam closed her eyes. "Fine. Then, we'll talk later."

"Can't promise anything."

She sighed. "I have a headache. I'm going to lie down."

"We should have dinner..."

"You can have the leftovers in the fridge." She murmured, walking toward the bedroom. "And I'm not really hungry right now."


	6. Issues

Sam was startled by the sudden, insistent ringing of the cell phone on the nightstand. She groaned as she reached for it. "Carter..."

"Isn't it O'Neill now?" Daniel teased, lightly.

"Daniel," she greeted with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Fine. How's married life?"

"Uh...challenging." She admitted with a sigh.

"Something wrong?" He asked, sensitively.

"We just had a bit of a fight."

"About what?"

"The fact that apparently, I've decided to get a little faith at precisely the moment he's decided to give it up."

"Ouch."

"We'll get over it. We always do." She said, trying to force the issue from her mind. "How's life in your neck of the woods?"

"Uh...fine. Little translating, a few off-world missions, you know...same old, same old..."

"Saved the world again, did you?" She teased.

"Well...A world." He laughed. "Though maybe not Planet Earth. At least, not directly."

She smiled softly. "How's the team?"

"Well, I guess maybe it's not surprising, but Cam's getting pretty restless..."

"Oh?"

"Apparently, SG-1 is only "really cool" if you're actually fighting alien bad guys."

"I'm sure something will turn up." Sam chuckled. "The galaxy is rarely safe for too long."

Daniel laughed appreciatively.

"What about Teal'c?"

"Oh, he's great. He just got word he's gonna be a grandpa."

"Really? That's fantastic!" Sam grinned.

"Yep."

"In fact, he took some leave so that he could go and celebrate with Rya'c and Cor'in."

"That's just great." Sam said, shaking her head in mild surprise. "Teal'c must be just over the moon."

"He is." Daniel assured.

"What about you and Vala? I know you said everything was fine, but..."

"We're fine. She's decided to take some online classes so that she can be a little more "useful" on the team."

"After hosting Que'tesh?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, she thinks she's a third wheel now that Adria's not a threat anymore."

"I see..."

"And I tried to tell her that she's useful as she is, but you know how she gets..."

"Almost as stubborn as a certain archaeologist I know." She teased.

"Oh, gee, thanks."

"Daniel, she's not trying to be more useful for the team." Sam said with a small sigh. "She's trying to impress you. Get you to realize that there's more to her than her...blatant...sexuality."

He sighed. "I know."

"But..." She prompted.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that, Sam. I mean, there was Sha're, and then there was..." He paused for a moment. "Uh...Sarah..."

"You forgot Janet," Sam murmured, softly.

"You knew about that?"

"You were both very discreet, but when Cassie got sick...we could tell."

"Yeah, well, that didn't last too long. I died and ascended, and that was the end of that."

"Daniel, it's been more than five years since Sarah was freed from Osiris, and she was the last one in that line."

"And I met Vala a year later. I know." He sighed. "I'm just...I'm not ready."

"To be fair, you met her first when she was trying to steal the _Prometheus_."

"Exactly. She gets in your head...messes with you..."

"No, Daniel." Sam said, soberly. "She gets in YOUR head, and messes with YOU. Everyone else has a fairly lucid head around her."

He was silent.

"Just..." Sam began softly. "Don't wait too long. I mean, time may heal all wounds, but sometimes that just creates bigger barriers to overcome in the future."

"Things that bad with you and Jack?"

"I don't know. I mean, we've been married less than a year, so I guess it's normal to get into fights more often, but..."

"You want to talk to Jack right now, don't you?"

"He needs his space. He'll find me when he's ready."

There was a soft knock on the door before her husband stepped in with a warm plate of leftover chicken fettuccine alfredo in his hand.

"Daniel, I've got to go."

"He just walked in, didn't he?"

"Yeah. I'll call you later."

"Bye."

"Bye." She said, hanging up the phone.

"Figured you could use a little dinner." He said, offering her the plate.

"Thank you." She admitted as she reached for it. "I am a little hungry."

He sat beside her, folding his hands into his lap silently, as she put the plate on the other side of the bed. She reached over and took one of his hands into her own, respecting his need for the silence.

They sat like that for several moments, and Sam wondered what was on his mind. For years, she'd been able to read him like an open book, and now, they were married, and she couldn't seem to get into that thick skull of his like before.

Then again, they were dealing with more complex issues than whether or not to follow orders.

Finally, he looked down at their entwined fingers. "You're right. It's not about you believing in the unexplainable..." He finally murmured.

She looked over, silently.

He sighed. "With my position...with our jobs..."

He stopped prematurely, and Sam bent her head in an effort to catch his gaze. "What is it, Jack?" She asked, gently.

"Maybe Grace is better off where she is."

Sam pulled away almost instantly as she inhaled sharply. "Jack, I thought we talked about this..."

"This isn't about what happened to Charlie." He assured.

"Oh, it's not?" She asked, confused.

"No, it's not. I mean, if we get rid of our personal firearms and teach her what to do or not to do when and if she comes across one, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Then what IS it about?" She asked, exasperatedly.

"Her safety." He said, seriously. "About Earth's safety."

"What are you talking about, Jack?" Sam asked, more confused than ever.

"When Cassie was sick, I made a deal with Nirrti."

"I know. And I would have done the same." Sam said, seriously.

"Yes, but I set her free on an unsuspecting world."

"That wasn't your fault, Jack."

"Like hell it wasn't!" He sneered with self-loathing.

"Jack..."

"And the worst part is that I almost made ANOTHER deal with her to save YOUR life because we got trapped on that god-forsaken planet!"

"You would have done it for Teal'c or Jonas too..."

"Jonas went INTO that thing, remember? And I wasn't thinking about saving him when I went up. I wanted her to fix you and the locals. Then, she could do whatever she wanted with me."

"So, what?" She sighed. "It didn't happen that way..."

"So what?" He asked, looking over at her. "What happens when you or Grace get taken hostage, hm? What happens when they realize that I virtually control all of the military stargate operations on Earth?"

"That's not going to happen, Jack."

"You can't promise it." He pressed.

"You would never let them," she assured. "You would know that I would rather sacrifice myself than jeopardize the fate of the world by making some compromise which may or may not actually save my life..."

"And Grace?"

"It's risky, Jack. But anything worth having or doing is." She inhaled. "And...I think Grace has seen a lot for her age. Maybe that's why she's so precocious." She reached over for his hand again. "Maybe that's why she's so careful when it comes to who she chooses to trust..."

He bit the inside of his cheek.

She wrapped her other arm around his as she leaned closer to him like she had so many years ago as Thera to his Jonah. "Jack...our situation may not be idea, but who actually as that, hm? If we wait for things to be perfect, then we're never going to get to have..."

"Maybe that would be best." He said, cutting her off.

She pulled away, somewhat shocked. "What?"

"Maybe we're not meant to have kids. Maybe it would be better for everybody..."

"You don't mean that," she whispered as tears stung her eyes.

"Actually, I think I do." He said with a small sigh as he looked over at her.

"I see..." She said, closing her eyes as she tried to stop feeling the hurt and betrayal that washed over her. She managed a self-deprecating laugh. "I can't believe I was so stupid!"

"You're not stupid."

"You fed me these...lines....about how much you wanted kids." She said, angrily. "But you were just telling me what you thought I wanted to hear!"

"I do want kids, but I refuse to be responsible for another kid's death." He explained.

His rational statement made her freeze and look at him with a look of supreme hurt in her eyes. "I thought you said it wasn't about Charlie..." She whispered.

He looked away in shame, and she wiped at her eyes before she grabbed her pillow and walked out of the room.


	7. Healing

Jack emerged from the bedroom several hours later after a restless night. The clock on the stove read 6:09, and Jack looked over at the guest room where Sam had spent the night.

It had broken his heart to hear his wife's cries through the paper-thin walls of the townhome throughout the night. He'd considered many times going in and comforting her, but he'd known it would have been a bad idea. She wouldn't want to see him. Not after how badly he'd hurt her.

He sighed. It was quiet now. Maybe she'd gotten some sleep.

He looked down at the counter to find a small piece of paper with his wife's handwriting on it. "Gone to the gym. S."

He swallowed. Maybe not.

-

"Samantha?"

Sam removed her headphones as she heard her name. "Yes?"

She looked over to see Sonya Martinez, dressed in workout clothes, smiling at her. "Hello."

"Sonya!" She cried, surprised.

"Mad at your husband?" Sonya asked, taking the stair master beside her friend. "Or is the world about to end?"

"Not so much mad as...upset..." Sam said with a faltering smile. "How'd you guess?"

"Look around." Sonya said, motioning to the large exercise room. "It's Saturday morning at the gym. Or as I like to call it "Take Your Spouse to Work Out" Day."

Sam chuckled appreciatively before she looked over at the woman who was obviously alone. "What about you? I don't see a better half..."

"That's because the world is going to end." Sonya laughed. "Congress is in session."

Despite her mood, Sam managed a small smile.

"How's the adoption coming?" Sonya asked after a few moments. Her tone was more subdued, but obviously interested.

Sam inhaled. "Well...."

"That good, huh?"

"Jack just told me that he's not sure we should adopt her at all."

"What?" Sonya asked, surprised. "Why not?"

Sam sighed. "I think he got a little scared. His first wife left him after their son was killed in an accidental shooting."

"Oh." Sonya said, her eyes widening. "I'd be scared too."

Sam nodded. "I was never naive enough to think that it wouldn't affect how much he wanted to have kids, but he's closed himself down in that area so well and so often that...sometimes it sneaks up on me."

"Even though you're expecting it."

"Exactly."

"He probably feels about the same," Sonya said, softly. "I mean, about the subject being closed and then so suddenly reopened."

"Probably." She agreed.

"I assume this happened last night..."

Sam nodded.

"What'd he say this morning?"

"I left before he could say anything," she admitted with a small sigh. "I guess part of me was too afraid to hear what he had to say." She bit her lip. "And...more than a little confused..."

"That his son's death complicated things?" Sonya asked, confused.

Sam shook her head. "No. That when I was crying in the other room, he didn't come in to check on me. At all."

"Ah."

"It's not like him." She said, worriedly.

"Maybe he wanted to give you enough space to deal with the argument. I mean, he hit you with the big guns there..."

"Yeah...maybe."

"Finish your workout, let me buy you a cup of coffee, and then get out of here." Sonya suggested. "And talk to him if you're ready."

Sam grinned. "Sounds like a plan."

-

"Jack, I'm home!" Sam called as she walked into the townhome and placed her keys on the table in the entryway.

There was silence, and she climbed the stairs somewhat worriedly. "Jack?"

She glanced at the living room to find nothing but an empty room. She stepped into the kitchen. He wasn't there either. And she couldn't see any notes except the one that she'd written that morning before she left for the gym.

She swallowed, nervously. It wasn't like him to just not answer her when he was home, and his truck had been in the garage. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

Seeing that the bedroom door had been shut, she inhaled and hurried to it. She quickly opened the door to find him sitting on the bed with his back toward her. The shades were drawn and the lights were off, and he seemed to clutch something in a death grip to his chest as he rocked slowly back and forth.

"Jack?" She whispered, worriedly. The thought of what he might be clutching in his hands had her more frightened than the thought that he'd gone for a walk and might not come back for hours.

Soft whimpers were her only response, and they were so foreign coming from the Lieutenant General that she almost expected to find a yelping dog nearby.

Her heart raced as she stepped quickly toward where he sat. She studied him closely as she knelt in front of him. He was clutching a picture frame in his hands, as if it was his lifeline. There were silent tears streaming down his cheeks, and Sam realized he looked like he was about five years old. "Jack," she murmured, touching his knees with her hands.

He opened his eyes, and looked down at her in utter misery. "He's gone, Sam." He choked as he turned bloodshot eyes to her.

He didn't look like he'd slept much the night before, though his crying had probably aggravated his eyes even more.

"I know." She whispered as she gently touched his arms.

He allowed her to bring them down to his lap, and gently pull the picture from his fingers so that she could set it on the nightstand.

"It hurts," he managed. "To miss him so much."

She had tears in her eyes, angry at herself that she hadn't been able to see his pain. "I know."

"He shouldn't be gone. Not before me."

She leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. A few moments passed before she leaned down and gently kissed his lips as she ran her fingers through his short silver hair. The kiss was slow and tender as she invited him to take her as close to him as he needed in an effort to comfort himself. He deepened the kiss as he accepted her invitation, nonverbally thanking her for her strength and resiliance. She gently unbuttoned his shirt as she prepared to remind him of just how much she loved him and would always love him as they danced the timeless dance of love.

-

Jack was still somewhat languid as they lay naked in one another's arms later. Still, he'd seemed to have taken the comfort he needed from her, and leaned on her reserves of inner strength enough to become more himself. His arm was wrapped, protectively, around her, and she lay her cheek on his chest, content only to hear the steady beating of his heart.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he finally murmured, looking down at her.

She looked up into his eyes. "I forgive you," she whispered tenderly.

"I should have come in to you last night." He sighed regrettably. "But I just..." He paused as he gently rolled over a little so that he could get a better look at her face. He gently brushed away a stray lock of her long blond hair which had slipped down the center of her face. He smiled faintly as he studied the familiar curves of her face. "I just...didn't want to get into it with you again."

"I wanted you to come in," she admitted with downcast eyes. "But I understand why you didn't." She looked back at him, apologetically. "I've been gone for so long, and even though I missed you even more than I've ever missed anyone in my entire life, I forgot how much harder it must be for you to stay behind without even the distractions of live combat."

He inhaled, shrugging his broad shoulders in an effort to shrug her guilt away.

"I shouldn't have pressured you into adopting Grace," she whispered, soberly. "Not that soon after returning for a mere ten-week extended leave."

"She's a cute kid," he admitted softly. "I probably would have done the same in your shoes."

They were silent for a moment, and Sam looked at her hands which were now pressed gently against her husband's bare chest. Her simple engagement ring sparkled softly in the few lazy streams of sunlight which seemed to flow slowly into the room. "Jack," she whispered. "I know and respect that you're not sure about..."

He pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her as she looked up. "We're too far in to back out now." He said, finally. "In just about every way..."

"Are you sure?" She asked, studying him closely as he pulled his finger back.

He nodded slowly. "She's counting on us to at least try."

She bit her lip before she looked up at him. "What about you?"

"I'll probably have some good and bad days," he admitted. "But I hope they'll be mostly good."

"Me too." She whispered as she gently caressed his cheek.

"What about...trying to get pregnant?" He asked, looking at her soberly.

Sam inhaled sharply.

"What?"

"At this stage in my life, Jack..."

"You're hardly the first woman to want to get pregnant after forty..."

She chuckled softly. "Yeah...Abraham's Sarah did have a little less than fifty years on me."

He managed an appreciative laugh as she inhaled more deeply as they each sobered. "At this point, I'll be happy if it happens, but...I'm not counting on it to happen..."

The telephone rang, and Sam moved to answer it, but Jack caught her hand, gently. "Let the machine get it."

"But..."

"If the world's ending, there's little that even you could do in the amount of time it will take them to leave a message."

"All right. You win this once." She smiled softly.

There was another ring before the machine kicked in. "Hello, you've reached the O'Neills. Also known as General Jack O'Neill and Colonel-Doctor Samantha Carter. Leave a message after the beep, and we'll get back to you as soon as we've saved the world..."

Sam gently swatted her husband.

"What?" He winked, returning for a moment to his playful self. "Plausible deniability..."

She shook her head with a chuckle as the message began.

"General. Colonel. This is Teri Brown from the Department of Social Services."

Sam sobered almost instantly, straining to listen to the message from the bedroom.

"I'm calling in regards to your application for adoption. I'd like to meet with you and go over a few....areas of interest...in your application, and discuss the results of your background checks."

Sam grasped her husband's arm, worriedly.

"I'd like to do that as soon as possible, so if you could please return my call and set up an appointment for Monday morning with my office, I'd appreciate it. My number is..."

Sam rolled over almost instantly, trying to grasp some scrap of paper and a working writing utensil.

When she found only an inkless pen, she groaned. "Damn..."

"It's a message, Sam. You can repeat it." Jack assured, gently.

She nodded, silently as she pulled the sheets around herself and hurried to the kitchen. He understood her urgency to return the call, and quite frankly, he was glad that it seemed everything was coming to a definitive close one way or the other. It was the waiting which was killing them both a little each day.

He reached for his cell, and dialed a familiar number. "It's General Jack O'Neill. I'm going to have to cancel my Monday morning meetings. Something important has come up."


	8. Screening

"I'm sorry," the social worker said as she walked into the office. "I had a placement that took longer than I anticipated."

"A placement?" Sam asked, interested. "That's great!"

"For the child and the family, yes." She said with a proud smile. "Now, General...Colonel..."

"Please. It's just Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill," Sam interjected. "Or Jack and Sam, if you prefer..."

"Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill," she corrected with a small smile as she pulled out a beige folder and opened it. "We received the results of your background checks."

Sam tensed, and Jack reached over to catch her fingers in his as he offered her a supportive smile.

"To be honest, this was far from encouraging." Teri said with a small sigh. She looked up at the Air Force officers. "They were both scrubbed clean."

"We've both spent a great deal of our careers in highly classified projects," Sam explained. "But Jack works at the Pentagon, and I've applied for reassignment. A desk job, actually in the area."

"What about our references?" Jack asked, noticing the skepticism in the woman's eyes.

She inhaled. "That was another let-down," she admitted. "Recommendations from a man who claims that the pyramids were landing pads for alien spacecrafts, two individuals whose background is even more mysterious than your own, if you can believe it, and an Air Force general who is divorced from his wife and just now after a twenty year rift with his daughter is beginning to build a rather strained relationship with her again does not speak highly for your personal sanity let alone your prospects as parents."

Sam sighed softly as the social worker looked back up. "In fact, the only reputable reference you list is Henry Hayes, but we assumed that was a joke."

"It wasn't." Jack said, evenly.

"The point," the woman said with a sigh. "Is that I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to deny your request for adoption."

Sam's face fell, and Jack looked up at the woman. "That's it, then. You're not even going to try to contact Henry Hayes?"

Sam touched his hand, gently. "Jack..."

"I haven't even touched what happened to your son, General." The woman said, evenly. "That's not something I can just overlook."

"Thank you for your time," Sam murmured, trying to keep from sobbing in that office as she stood, tugging on Jack's hand.

He followed her, reluctantly.

"Well...that didn't go well," she managed with a sniffle as she turned to her husband. "Let's go home."

"I'll meet you there." He said, nodding. "I have to go into the office for a little while."

She opened her mouth, and he touched his finger to her lips. "Just a few minutes. I'll be there in no time."

She nodded slowly as she closed her mouth again. He reached over and hugged her tightly. "Hey, it'll be okay," he whispered softly as he held her.

She tried to keep from allowing the tears which threatened to slip down her cheeks from actually doing so as she clung to him.

"Do you want me to walk you to your car?" He asked when she finally released him.

She shook her head, wordlessly.

"See you at home," he promised as he brushed his lips against hers gently.

She nodded. "Okay."

He watched her walk out the doors for a minute before he walked back into the social worker's office.

She looked up in surprise. "Yes, General?"

"First of all, my wife asked you to call me either Mr. O'Neill or Jack." He said, soberly.

"My apologies." The woman corrected, mechanically.

"And secondly, what will it take for you to give us a chance? More than just a glance-over?"

"If you're trying to bribe me..." The woman said, raising an eyebrow.

"No bribe." He said, seriously. "My wife has taken care of her friend's adopted daughter as if she was her own since Janet died in 2004. She was just finishing high school, and she's now finished with her Bachelor's degree and headed for medical school, but she had some dark times in there, and Sam was there the whole time."

"I appreciate..."

"And a friend of ours," Jack continued, almost without a breath. "General George Hammond, who had taken his son's daughters upon his son and daughter-in-law's sudden deaths in a car accident, passed away two years ago. His oldest granddaughter was already in college, but we helped out while the younger one, Kayla, finished high school before she went off to college. Sometimes, they even stay with us if they need to. And despite our lives over the past few years, these girls have turned out rather well-adjusted besides being orphaned at such a young age and then losing their only family a few years later..."

"General..."

"And who are you to say that we have fudged ANY of our references?" He steamrolled over her attempts to interject, angrily.

"Mr. O'Neill, you're causing a scene..."

Jack bit back what he really wanted to say. "I'm sorry, Mrs..." He looked at the nameplate on the desk. "Brown. But if I were to prove to you that Henry Hayes is actually one of our legitimate references, would you give us a chance?"

The woman bit her lip before she nodded slowly. "A chance? Yes."

"Look up the White House phone number, and I'll get you through to the President." Jack said, soberly.

"Right now?"

He gestured to the keyboard. "Tap-tap...I think you can find the number at White House dot gov."

The woman was more than a little flustered as she began the search before she finally offered Jack the phone and dialed.

"Hi, Brenda," Jack greeted. "It's Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill. I need to speak with the President."

He paused for a moment before he shook his head. "No, it's a personal favor, but still somewhat urgent..."

He paused for a few moments. "Mr. President! It's nice to hear your voice. How are you?"

There was another pause before he looked at the woman. "As much as I'd like to catch up further, I do have a favor to ask. Could you please give the reference Sam and I asked for a few weeks ago? It seems that the social worker didn't believe we actually knew you and decided not to call you."

Jack paused for a moment before he offered the phone to the slack-jawed social worker. "I think he wants to speak with you."

Her jaw dropped as she received the phone. "He-hello?"

Jack couldn't help but smirk when she passed out. Checking to make sure she was all right, he took the receiver from her hand. "Thanks, Mr. President. I owe you one."


	9. Adoption

Sam walked through the corridors of the Pentagon with nervous butterflies in her stomach as she looked for her husband's office.

She finally reached it, and opened the door with a little trepidation.

"Colonel Carter!" Lt. Marcie Johnson greeted warmly.

Sam smiled nervously at Jack's assistant's greeting. "Is he in there?"

"Yes, but he's on a call right now. Shall I tell him that you're here?"

"Please." She said, nodding as she sat.

She slipped into the second room within the office, and Sam waved as she caught Jack's eye.

He looked utterly surprised to find her there. He quickly went through the motions of ending the phone call before he motioned for her to enter.

"Colonel..." Johnson said, turning to her.

"I saw, Lieutenant." Sam said with a small smile as she slipped into the office.

"What's the occasion?" Jack asked, looking up at his wife.

"They called us back."

He raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"We have a court hearing about whether or not we can adopt Grace."

"Great!" He said with a grin.

She had a troubled look on her face, and he raised his eyebrow. "Not great?"

"This wasn't supposed to happen...they said we weren't good prospects."

"Sometimes, people change their minds." Jack said, pulling on his jacket.

"But, Jack..."

"Maybe they decided to give our one "legitimate" reference a try."

She raised an eyebrow. "I highly doubt..."

"Who cares how it happened?" Jack asked, kissing her forehead, gently. "It just is happening."

She finally allowed herself a wide grin. "Yeah. It is."

"Lunch?" He asked, motioning to the door.

"I'd love some." She nodded, agreeably.

"Excellent. I'm starving." He said, following her out the door. "And there's nothing like an IOA to make you lose your appetite..."

Her brow furrowed.

"That's what's scheduled after lunch. So if I don't catch it now..."

"You give it up." She said, nodding. "Gotcha."

"Besides, we have something to celebrate." He grinned.

"That we do, Jack." She said, reaching over for his hand. "That we do."

-

_Two weeks later:  
_

Sam studied the judge in front of her, somewhat worriedly, as she reviewed the evidence before her. Their whole lives were sitting there in a file folder on her desk.

Jack reached over and squeezed her hand, gently, and she turned a nervous smile to him. Everything was going so fast...

The judge inhaled before looking up.

Sam sat up in her chair, scooting forward, as if she was at attention.

"Is Grace Taylor here?"

"Yes, your Honor."

"I'd like to have a few words with her in my chambers." She said, motioning for Suzanne to bring her forward.

Sam swallowed, sitting back again. This waiting was killing her.

"Breathe," Jack murmured to her gently.

She managed a silent chuckle as she looked over at him.

"This is actually a good sign." The lawyer said, looking over at them. "She didn't just throw you out because of your file."

Sam tried to smile encouragingly, but she looked almost sick with nervousness.

It was several minutes before the judge appeared again as Grace was led back into the room. She turned a triumphant grin to Sam and Jack who tried to return them. The judge cleared her throat, causing all of the adults to look at her.

"I've reviewed all of the facts in this case, and quite frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long to put Grace into their adoptive custody."

Sam's eyes widened in surprise as the judge turned to the couple. "Take her home. You belong together."

A slow grin began to spread on Sam's features as she shared a disbelieving look with her husband before Grace ran and flung herself into her new mother's arms. Sam hugged her tightly. "You knew," she whispered.

"Yes, I did...Mommy..."

-

"I can't believe that the judge wanted us to take her home today." Sam murmured to her husband as they drove from the courthouse.

"You heard her. We belong together."

Sam turned a grin to her new daughter who smiled, widely. Then, she turned back to her husband. "The house isn't ready for her..."

"Not much to do. Just fix up one of the rooms for her. We can have that done by the end of the week."

Sam bit her lip as the mention of time came up. "Jack, I'm...I'm leaving in two weeks..."

"No, Sam, you're not."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"You know that application you turned in when we were considering adopting Grace? The one for adoption leave?"

"Yeah."

"It came through. And I have it on good authority that you'll probably be reassigned this time."

She grinned. "They found a new commander?"

"Yeah. Cam Mitchell, actually."

"No way!"

He laughed. "Yeah."

"How long is my leave?"

"Another three months."

She shook her head in surprise. "Well...then, I guess a trip to the mall is in order." She looked back at Grace and winked. "We've got a little girl's room to put together."

Grace grinned.

-

By the time they'd gotten home, Grace had picked out a white wooden bedroom set with a twin-sized bed, a three-drawer dresser and mirror combination set, a desk, a small bookcase, and a chest which could rest at the foot of her bed. With new pink and purple sheets for the bed, some clothes for the closet, and a few other items to make the room a little more homey, Grace was on top of the world.

And Sam was more than a little excited herself to have a little girl in the house. Yes, she may have played with Major Matt Mason as a kid, but part of her was excited to do the mommy-daughter manicures and tea parties of which Grace seemed so fond.

"How about pizza, kiddo?" Jack asked, walking into the house a little after six that evening.

"Okay." She said with a smile.

"You wanna see your room?" Sam asked, taking off her coat. "I mean, it won't have your new things in it until they deliver it tomorrow, but..."

"Sure!" She cried, enthusiastically.

Sam grinned as she reached for her hand. "Come on, I'll show you."

They walked to the bedroom, and Grace stopped just outside the door.

"Something wrong?" Sam asked, looking over at the little girl.

"Are you going to still read to my class?" She asked with eyes wide.

"Sure. If you want me to."

"I do." She said, nodding soberly.

"All right then." Sam grinned.

"Will Daddy come and read to my class?"

"He has to work when you're in school, but maybe he can read to you at home."

"Okay." She said, nodding agreeably.

"You wanna come in and look at the room?"

"Okay." She said, stepping in. She looked at the double bed which had two nightstands on either side and a dresser along the wall closest to the door. Two large windows were opposite the entry with a walk-in closet in the left-hand corner opposite the door. "It's so big!" She murmured, looking up.

Sam chuckled. "Well, this was a guest room, but starting tomorrow, we'll get this looking like your room, okay?"

"Okay."

"You like pepperoni, little miss?" Jack asked, poking his head in the room.

"Yep." Grace grinned.

He chuckled. "All right, then. One large pepperoni for us, and one small veggie for Mommy." He said, leaning in and kissing Sam's nose affectionately.

"Wouldn't hurt either of you to have some of my veggie," she teased.

"On pizza?" Grace asked, turning a disgusted look to her new mother.

Jack laughed as he shared a high-five with the little girl. "I'm with you, kid."

Sam shook her head with a gentle smile. "Okay, okay...father-daughter bonding over pepperoni pizza...I'll allow it."

Jack and Grace turned matching grins to her, and Sam felt her heart swell with pride. This was what life was supposed to be like. This was what she'd always felt like she was missing out on.

-

_Apologies for the rush on the adoption stuff and the vagueness of it all. There wasn't much that I could find about the actual legal part of the adoption process, and so I had to write this chapter with the limited knowledge I had of my parents' adoption of my sister. It may seem fast, but for kids that are over the age of 2 in the foster care system, it usually goes pretty fast. In fact, the "take her home" response happened to my parents when they adopted my sister about 8 1/2 years ago._


	10. Remember When

"Who's coming to the cabin?" Grace asked, looking up from her book as they drove from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport toward the secluded hideaway.

"Our friends, Daniel, Murray and Vala." Sam said, turning back to look at her.

"They used to work with you, right?"

"That's right, kiddo." Jack grinned, looking back at her in the rearview mirror.

Sam turned her head back to the front of the car, inducing a small wave of nausea to bubble up within her unexpectedly. She pressed a hand to her mouth for a moment before it finally passed.

"You okay?" Jack asked, looking over at her.

She managed a weak smile. "Fine. A little motion sickness, I guess."

He raised an eyebrow, skeptically. He'd flown with her before. She'd never shown any trace of motion sickness then, and they'd been flying in death gliders, F-302s, and all sorts of alien aircraft.

"It happens, sometimes," she defended. "When I'm driving on gravel roads."

They'd only just turned onto the gravel roads which would take them to the cabin, and he shrugged. "Next time, we'll bring some Dramamine."

She nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

They drove in silence for a few moments before Grace looked up from her book again. "Is Murray' nickname Teal'c?" Grace asked, nonchalantly.

Her parents looked at one another before Sam turned back to her. "Where'd you hear that name?"

"In my dream."

"Dream?" Sam asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah. About the cabin." She said, coloring in her coloring book. "Daniel and Vala were kissing and a big black man with a gold symbol on his head walked into the room. Daniel yelled "Teal'c" and then, Daddy went in to talk to them."

"I did?" Jack asked, looking back at her through the rearview mirror again.

"Yeah. I didn't hear what you were saying because Mommy had started throwing up in the bathroom."

Sam's smile fell. "Great...so, not motion sickness."

Jack patted her knee, sympathetically.

"Who's Cassie?" She asked a few moments later.

"She's our friend, Janet's daughter. You'll meet her sometime."

"Oh."

"Why did you ask?"

"You talked about her. With Daniel. In my dream." She paused for a moment before she looked up at Sam with a thoughtful look on her face. "Do you like dogs, Mommy?"

"Sure, I like dogs." She said with a shrug.

"So, would you like it if Daddy and I got you a dog for your birthday?"

"Are you and Daddy planning on getting me a dog for my birthday?" She asked, turning a pointed look to her husband.

"What?" Jack asked, defensively. "I think she came up with that one on her own."

"If I promised to take care of it and love it, would you let me keep a dog if someone gave it to met?" Grace asked, rephrasing the question expertly.

Sam bit her lip as she looked at Jack for a moment. Then, she turned back to look at Grace. "How about we cross that bridge when we come to it?"

Grace sighed softly. "Fine..."

Sam managed a small smile as she turned back before another wave of nausea hit her. She groaned softly as she wrapped her arms around her stomach and cradled her cheek against the seatbelt.

"You wanna stop?" Jack asked, looking over at her.

"No. I'll be fine." She murmured, obviously feeling worse than before.

"We've still got fifteen minutes to go before we get there. You gonna be okay until then?"

"Yeah..." She whispered as she started to drift off to sleep.

-

They pulled up to the cabin as Sam began to snore softly in the front seat. Jack smiled and affectionately brushed away a strand of her hair which had slipped into her face before he turned to Grace in the backseat. "Ready?"

"Ready," she whispered, careful not to wake her mother.

"Hop on out and open the front door so I can carry your mom in, okay?"

"Okay." She said, getting out of the car and hurrying up to the porch.

Jack got out of the car and slipped his keys into his pocket as he hurried around to open his wife's door. He easily unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her into his arms as she stirred. "Jack?"

"It's me," he whispered, kissing her forehead as he cradled her in his arms. "We're at the cabin."

"Grace..."

"Is in the cabin as we speak."

"I..."

"You are going right to bed." He insisted.

"Okay." She murmured as she rested her cheek against his chest, settling further into his arms. "Tired..."

"You're sick." He said, carrying her into the master bedroom. "You're allowed."

A small smile flitted onto her lips as he set her on the bed. "Wake me when everyone comes..."

"I will." He assured with a small chuckle as he gently closed the door behind him.

"Mom's sick, isn't she?" Grace said, looking up at him from where she stood in the hallway.

"Yeah, kiddo." He said with a sigh. "Looks that way."

"She'll be okay." She said, confidently.

"She does have a tendency to get better quickly." He said with a grin as he picked her up.

"What do you do here at the cabin?" She asked from atop his shoulders.

"Well...usually, we fish."

"Fish?" Grace asked, curiously.

"Yep. And when Daniel, Teal'c, and Vala get here, I'll show you how it's done."

"Even though there are no fish in your pond?" She asked, wryly.

"Hey! How'd you..."

"I had a dream," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"That's it. No more dreaming for you." He said with mocking sternness.

"Daddy, you're silly." She said, shaking her head.

"Why...thank you." He said, walking out the front door. "Wanna help me keep a lookout for the fellas?"

"Isn't she a little young for boyfriends, Jack?" Cassie asked, walking up to the cabin.

"Cassandra!" He cried with a grin.

"Hi, Jack." She said with a smile of her own. "I heard about the family reunion, and I thought I'd stop by. Where's Sam?"

"Inside. Asleep." He managed a smile of chagrin. "She's not feeling well."

"Ah. Then, we should let her sleep." Cassie said, looking up at the girl atop her father's shoulders. "And this must be Grace."

"Hi." Grace waved.

"Hi." Cassie said with a smile. "My name's Cassandra, but you can call me Cassie."

Grace wiggled, struggling to get down, and Jack let her down from his shoulders. She walked over to Cassie and extended her hand in greeting. "Nice to finally meet you, Cassie."

Cassie grinned. "Backatcha."

A dog's bark could be heard from nearby, and Cassie turned.

"Oh, you didn't..." Jack murmured, suddenly knowing exactly why Grace had been asking about the dog in the car.

"Didn't what, Jack?" Cassie asked, looking back at him with a twinkle in her eye. "Break the rules?"

"Sam's gonna kill you." Jack said with a laugh.

"She can try." Cassie chuckled. "But I have a feeling she's not going to be able to say "no" to the three of you."

"You brought a dog!" Grace cried as the golden retriever puppy raced toward her.

"It's a rule, Grace," Cassie said with a mischievous smile. "Every kid in the O'Neill family HAS to have one!"

The five-year-old giggled as the puppy licked her face affectionately.

"Oh, you are SO lucky that Grace and I like dogs and that Sam seems to have a particular fondness for you," Jack said, shaking his head as he walked over to the duo playing in the grass.

Cassie grinned. "I know."

"I promise to take care of him. Feed him, water him, take him for walks..." Grace said, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. "Please, please, PLEASE can I keep him?"

Jack swallowed. How could he refuse her?

"Uh...we'll ask your mom, okay?"

"But it's a rule!"

"And...your mom has broken a few of those in her day," Jack said, seriously. "I'll talk to her tonight, okay?"

Grace looked down at the dog with a small sigh. "I won't name you until tomorrow, okay?"

The dog barked happily.

She wrapped her arms around the small dog and nuzzled her face in his fur. "I love him!"

"He's a cutie," Jack agreed.

"Why'd you think I picked him?" Cassie asked with a laugh.

"To torture us." Jack laughed as a truck pulled up.

They all turned to see the travelers, and neither Jack nor Cassie were surprised to see that Vala got out first. "I am NEVER doing that again."

"Oh, come on, Vala. It's a road trip...it's supposed to be fun."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm being difficult, but being stuck in a small vehicle with you and Muscles, for more than an hour, though somewhat amusing, is an experience I will NEVER do again."

Jack chuckled as Daniel sighed, and turned to his friends. "Hey. Where's Sam?"

"Doesn't anyone come to the cabin to see me anymore?" Jack whined.

"Daddy, Mommy doesn't like it when we whine." Grace reminded him from where she played with her new puppy.

Daniel couldn't help but smile. "Looks like she's got your number, Jack."

"Ooh! A puppy!" Vala cried, rushing over to Grace and the dog.

"My name's Grace," the five-year-old introduced.

"I'm Vala. Pleased to meet you." She said with a grin as she scratched the dog behind the ears.

"So...where's Sam?" Daniel asked again after watching Vala, Grace and the puppy for a few moments.

"Inside, asleep. She's not feeling well."

"Not feeling well?" Daniel asked, curiously.

"Yeah. Started getting nauseous in the car. Tried to say it was motion sickness, but..."

"She's an Air Force pilot, and you didn't buy that."

"Exactly."

"Does she have the stomach flute? Because I don't really want to experience that." Vala said with a small shudder as she rejoined the adults.

"It's flu," Cassie corrected softly.

"Oh, right...flu..."

"It looks like that's what it might be," Jack admitted. "We'll put you up in a hotel if you need it..."

Vala opened her mouth, but Daniel beat her to the punch as he shook his head. "No, we'll be fine."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, nodding.

"Now...I think we came here to meet your daughter," Daniel said, looking over at Grace. "Gonna introduce us?"

Jack looked over at Grace for a moment before he looked back at Daniel. "May...be..." He drawled out.

"Jack..." Sam murmured from where she'd just appeared on the porch, wrapping a sweater around herself.

"Okay, okay..." Jack smiled. "Daniel, Teal'c, Vala, this is our daughter, Grace. Grace, these are the guys."

She looked over with a proud grin. "Hi, guys."

As the team began talking to Grace and playing with the dog, Cassie walked over to the porch. "Hi, Sam."

Sam smiled, tiredly, as she gently embraced the young woman. "How are you, Cass?"

"I'm doing really well."

"That's good to hear." Sam said, nodding. "What's going on?"

"Well, I'm at Johns Hopkins now, so I'm not that far from where you guys live now."

"You'll have to come and visit," Sam winked.

"At least babysit Grace while you and Jack go off for a weekend sometime."

"You don't have to do that," Sam laughed softly.

"Well, you're on adoption leave, right? You might want the chance to get away just the two of you before you're reassigned..."

"We'll think about it," Sam promised, looping an arm around the younger woman.

"I'm, uh..." Cassie began. "I'm dating...a guy...out there."

"Oh?" Sam asked, interested.

"Yeah. His name's Cameron. He's in law school."

"And he's at Johns Hopkins?" Sam asked, confused.

Cassie shook her head. "University of Baltimore Law School."

"You should bring him down sometime. I'm sure Jack would love to meet him."

"Considering how much Jack likes lawyers," Cassie chuckled.

"Well, it might not be perfect, but he'll do his best," Sam laughed.

"Yeah..." Cassie looked back at Sam. "You don't look like you're feeling too well..."

"Jack spilled the beans?" Sam asked, looking back at her husband with an affectionate smile as he talked to Daniel and Vala while Teal'c and Grace played with the dog on the ground beside them.

"Well, everyone was asking where you were." Cassie pointed out.

"I think I was just a little motion sick. I'm fine." She said, shaking her head.

"How long have you been feeling sick?" Cassie asked, looking over at her.

"Look at you, one semester in med school, and already sounding like your mother," Sam chided, softly. "I'm fine, Cass. I fell asleep in the car, and Jack thought I should get some more rest, but then I heard you guys pull up, so I'm here. But I'll go to bed early, try to get some fluids down, and be better in the morning."

"Okay, okay." Cassie said, throwing up her hands in defeat.

"Now...please explain to me why my daughter is playing with a dog?" Sam asked, looking over at Cassie, with a small amused smile playing on her lips.


	11. Nightmare

1 1/2 Years ago:

_"I don't think we should go out tonight, Eric." The brunette woman said, nervously looking out over the snow-covered landscape.  
_

_"Heidi, it's our anniversary." Her husband sighed from beside her in the car. "This is the ONE night we SHOULD go out."_

_"Grace had one of her dreams last night." She said, uneasily. "She was terrified. It took me three hours to get her to go back to sleep!"_

_"What was it about?"_

_"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me." Heidi said, biting her lip nervously, as she played with her curls. "All I know is that she didn't want us to go out tonight."_

_"She never wants us to go out. She's an only child who is picky about her babysitters. She never wants you out of her sight!"_

_"She's got a lot on her plate right now, Eric." Heidi said, soberly. "Not every three-and-a-half-year-old sees what she sees in her dreams."_

_"Yeah...what does she see in them again?"_

_"The hurricane, the earthquake, Eric, she saw them all. And they were on the news the next day."_

_"She also dreamed that she was going to get a pony for her birthday, and that didn't happen."_

_"She can tell the difference between the dreams. There's something different about..."_

_"Can we go out for ONCE and talk about something other than Grace?" He interrupted, angrily._

_His wife fell silent._

_"It's like there's no "us" anymore. Just you, me and Grace."_

_"She's my daughter, Eric."_

_"And I'm your husband. And call me crazy, but we had a relationship long before she was born, and we're supposed to be together long after she leaves."_

_"Eric..."_

_"Maybe this was a bad idea," he sighed as he ran his fingers through his thick hair._

_He pulled to the nearest break where he could make a u-turn._

_"ERIC!" His wife cried as she saw the car a split second before they turned._

_It plowed into them, causing a multiple car pile up on the interstate as car after car hit one another in the busy traffic. When the horrific domino effect had ended, there was a chain of cars that had slid off the interstate and linked together. The Taylor's car, now sandwiched between a tree on Eric's side and another car on Heidi's side, housed two blood-soaked corpses where Grace's parents had once sat._

_-_

Present Day:

"Mommy..." Grace whimpered in her sleep.

Sam's ear perked up at the sound that emerged from the silence of the house.

"No, Mommy!" She screamed, suddenly.

Sam bolted up, suddenly alert. Her husband was right with her. "Grace," he murmured as Sam stumbled out of bed and toward the little girl's room.

The little girl was thrashing around on her bed. "DON'T GO, MOMMY!" She yelled as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Sam flipped on the light, and hurried to her daughter. "Grace," she whispered as she easily dodged the kicks and punches that Grace was giving. She gently subdued her. "Grace, you're okay. You're safe."

Grace's eyes opened, suddenly. "Mommy?" She hiccuped.

"I'm here, sweetheart."

"I had a bad dream..."

Jack walked into the room. "We could tell. You wanna tell us about it?" He asked as Sam gently wiped the tears from Grace's cheeks and smoothed the hair from her face.

"My other mommy and daddy..." She inhaled noisily.

"You had a nightmare about your other mommy and daddy?" Sam asked, softly.

She nodded slowly.

"What happened?" Jack asked, sitting on the other side of the bed as he gently shooed the dog (named Doc after Grace's favorite dwarf from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) to the foot of the bed so that he could see and talk to his daughter.

"Th-they were fighting." She whispered. "About me."

"About you?" Sam asked, eyes wide.

Grace nodded. "Daddy didn't like my dreams because Mommy was afraid of what the dreams might do to me."

"Do to you?" Jack prodded, gently.

Grace swallowed. "She thought I'd be scared all the time because of my dreams."

"Are you scared all the time?" Sam asked, softly.

"Not all the time." She said, shaking her head. "But sometimes..."

Sam leaned down and kissed her forehead, gently. "Oh, angel, I'm sorry."

"You didn't give me the dreams. You can't change the fact that I have them," she said, sounding wise beyond her years.

Sam managed a sad smile as she gently ran her fingers up and down Grace's arm.

"What happened next in your dream?"

Grace looked up at her adopted father as she exhaled softly. "Daddy wasn't very careful when he turned, and he got into an accident." She swallowed. "They died."

"My mom died in a car accident too," Sam whispered, pensively. "It was very scary after that."

"Did you ever get a new mommy?"

Sam shook her head, soberly. "No. My dad never got married again."

"Do you miss your mommy still?"

Sam looked down at her daughter. "Oh yeah," she admitted. "But then, I look at you and at Jack, and I remember that life can be hard sometimes, but usually, there's a good thing around the corner."

"Like when you adopted me."

"Exactly." Sam said, softly.

Grace still looked somewhat troubled, and Sam sat with her back against the headboard as she wrapped an arm around Grace. "When I was scared, my mom used to sing to me. I'm not as good at singing as she was, but..."

"Try," Grace asked, vulnerably.

Sam nodded as she coughed gently in preparation for her song. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are."

She swallowed. "There are more verses, but...I won't..."

"It was nice." Grace interrupted as she snuggled closer to her mother. "I liked it."

"Yeah. Me too." Jack whispered with a gentle smile.

Sam managed a grateful smile for her husband who gently touched the hand which was on Grace's shoulder.

"Come back to bed when you're finished?" He asked, softly.

"Do my best." She agreed as Grace began to slip back to sleep.

He walked around to the other side of the bed, and gently kissed her before he slipped out of the room. Sam found herself humming gently as she stroked Grace's hair gently. In her mind, she could hear her mother's voice. After she was certain that Grace had fallen back into a fitful sleep, Sam looked over at the window that framed a beautiful view of the stars. As good a view as one could get in Washington DC, she admitted to herself. "She's a sweet girl, Mom. I think you'd love her as much as I do."

She could almost hear her mother's voice on the wind. _Why do you think I sent her to you?_

A small smile fluttered onto her lips as she closed her eyes, tiredly. "Thanks, Mom," she murmured softly.


	12. Morning

The gentle shaking brought her to consciousness slowly. "Sam..." Her husband intoned softly. "Sam, honey, it's time to wake up. I've got to get to work and Grace needs to go to school."

She forced her eyes open. "What time is it?" She croaked. She must have fallen asleep when she'd been sitting with Grace. Her neck and back were so stiff and sore...

"Just a little before eight." He said, looking at his watch.

"What?" She asked, instantly pulling away from the headboard so that she was sitting of her own accord. Suddenly, blood rushed to her head and she blinked multiple times to alleviate her dizziness. She closed her eyes and touched a finger to her temple. "Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked after a moment.

"Honestly?" He asked raising an eyebrow as he steadied her with the strength of his arms. "Because it looked like you could use the sleep-in. What time did you get to sleep

"Dunno."

"You okay?" He asked, studying her.

"Dizzy..." She murmured as she closed her eyes and rested the back of her head against the headboard for a moment. "And a little nauseous."

"You want me to stay home today?" He offered, kindly.

She shook her head carefully. "It'll pass. I'm sure."

"You went to bed pretty early last night." He reminded her. "And you slept in too. Sounds like you might have the flu."

She shook her head. "Just had it a few weeks ago at the cabin."

"Doesn't matter...it can come around more than once."

"I don't feel feverish, Jack. I'll just have a glass of water and some yogurt and toast, and I'll be up and running."

"You're sure..."

She nodded as she slowly got out of bed. She looked at him, dressed in his uniform. "Go, Jack. I'll be fine. You don't want to be late..."

"You and I have different definitions of the word "want", my dear." He teased as he leaned in and kissed her softly.

Sam chuckled as they walked out of the bedroom together and into the kitchen. She turned green as she smelled the scrambled eggs that her daughter was eating.

"Sam?" Jack asked, catching her as her knees buckled beneath her for a moment.

She turned to him, only to cover her mouth with both hands as she stumbled weakly to the bathroom.

She was on her second round of heaving when she felt his gentle hands pull the hair back from her face. When he finished, he offered her a cold washcloth so that she could wipe her face.

"You gonna be okay while I take Grace to school?" He asked, softly. "I'll be back in just a few minutes."

She nodded, weakly.

"Here, let's get you to bed," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist as he led her from the bathroom to the bedroom where he helped her into bed.

She slipped beneath the covers, resting her head on the pillow, tiredly.

"Get some rest, okay?"

She nodded with her eyes closed as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I'll be right back," he promised.

-

The sound of rustling plastic woke Sam suddenly, and she looked over to find the source of the sound. Her husband was kneeling beside her bed as he pulled a few bottles of ginger ale from a plastic bag and placed them beside the saltine crackers he'd already pulled out.

"Jack," she murmured.

He looked up at her. "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He whispered. "Go back to sleep."

"Grace get off to school okay?"

"Yeah." He assured. "And she wants you to start feeling better soon."

Sam smiled softly as she sat up and rested her back against the headboard. She felt her long hair slipping down over her ears, and she quickly pulled the elastic from her hair before she wound it around the ponytail again more tightly as Jack stood and sat beside her on the bed.

"You feeling a little better?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Good to hear." He said, soberly.

She noticed the clock on the wall. It was nine-fifteen. Forty-five minutes after Jack was supposed to have reported to work.

"You didn't have to stay home, Jack," she said, looking over at him. "I'm feeling better. I promise. And I'll be good and stay in bed until I have to get Grace from school."

"Would I really be the man you married if I didn't take every opportunity given to me to miss a meeting or two?" He asked with a wry grin.

She smiled appreciatively. "Which meetings did I help you get out of?"

"Oh, just...one with the IOA...one with Senator Marks from California...um...a few reports which needed to be read...a few which needed to be written..."

"You can write the reports from our computer, can't you?"

"And...she ruins the mood..." He teased as he hung his head in mock-shame.

"Sorry, Jack," she chuckled.

"Next time, don't say things like that. Then, when I say I didn't realize I could do that...I won't be lying." He winked.

"I'll keep that in mind."

He rested his hand on her thigh gently as he looked more soberly into her eyes. "Hey, how are you really doing?"

"I'm tired." She admitted. "Which is odd because...I've been sleeping for hours."

"You're sick. You're allowed."

"I'm still a little dizzy, but not feeling as nauseous..."

"That's good." He said, cautiously optimistic.

"I think so." She said with a small smile. She took a moment to look at him. He seemed tired and worn. "Hey..."

"Hm?" He asked, looking over at her instantly.

"You okay?"

"Fine," he said, nodding.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Just hate seeing you sick." He admitted.

"Ah." She said, nodding. "Well, I'm much better now that I'm not fighting it and just staying in bed."

"You look a little better." He agreed. "Still a little pale, but better-rested."

"Exactly how I feel."

"Well, I'm going to change out of these restricting dress blues, and then, I'll be back in to see what you want to do."

"Movie is always welcome," she smiled. "And if you're gonna stick around, I'll even let you choose..."

"Ooh. Don't tempt me." He laughed as he unbuttoned his jacket. "Might have to stay home everyday if that's the way it works."

She chuckled softly to herself as she watched him undress. She'd married a rather handsome man. That much was certain.

"Hey...you lookin' at me?" Jack teased as he looked over at her, dressed in a white t-shirt and his navy blue slacks.

She grinned. "Better believe it."

"Ah." He said with a grin. "Well, then...carry on."

Sam laughed softly from where she sat on the bed as he finished dressing in his Air Force tee and jeans.

"So...what movie are you going to subject me to?" She asked as he sat beside her on the bed.

"Hm...well...I was thinking about that one alien movie you love so much..." He winked.

"Jack!"

"Okay, okay..." He laughed. "I wasn't thinking about that one."

"Yes, you were." She said with a playful smile. "But only because you wanted to make fun of my reaction."

"True." He admitted.

She shook her head. "You're obnoxious."

"But I'm oh, so handsome!" He grinned.

She smiled softly as she curled up next to him. "Um-hm..."

"Hey, if you're gonna do that, at least wait until I put the movie in," Jack teased, gently.

"Uh-uh...this is comfortable," she laughed as she wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes with her cheek against his chest.

"Okay." He shrugged as he put his arms around her. "I can deal with a little mid-morning cuddle..."

"Good..." She murmured as her eyes slipped closed again.

"Going to sleep on me again?"

"Didn't sleep well last night in Grace's bed," she admitted.

"Yeah...didn't have your favorite teddy bear is more like it," he grumbled, playfully.

She chuckled softly. "Yes. I just want you for your body."

"It's hard to be this good-looking," he said with a mock sigh. "But someone has to do it."

She giggled.

"No giggling, Carter." He said with a mockingly stern voice, bringing back memories of being trapped with her in Antarctica.

"Oh...still having trouble with your sidearm?" She retorted softly.

He bit back a guffaw.

She managed a tired smile as she closed her eyes again.

"Hey, Sam?" Jack asked after a few moments.

"Hm?"

"You don't think you might be..." He began slowly.

"Be what? Sick? Oh, I'm pretty sure about that one..."

"Yeah, but maybe this is just a...symptom..." He prodded, gently. "I mean, Sara..."

Sam's eyes flew open suddenly. "You think I'm pregnant." She interrupted.

He shrugged. "It IS a possibility. Isn't it?"

She was silent as she thought carefully. She pulled away from him, almost looking heavenward as she counted on her fingers. "I-I think you might be right..."

"That it's a possibility or...?" Jack asked, studying her closely.

"Well, since I left the _George Hammond_ I haven't gotten any of the normal birth control shots I get...and I haven't been on there in a while...and I was so caught up with getting Grace that wasn't even thinking...and..."

"And..." He prodded gently.

She looked over at him as she swallowed. "I might be pregnant..."

"Should I call your doctor?" He asked, looking over at her.

"That, uh...might be a little premature. We should...uh...get a test...or something..."

He smiled, sheepishly. "I got one. Just in case..."

"Oh." She said in faint surprise. "Okay..."

"Hey, it is what it is." He said, wrapping an arm around her. "If you're pregnant, then you're pregnant, and if you're not...we'll deal."

She inhaled softly. "What about Grace? I mean, we've only had her for a few weeks, and..."

"And she'll be fine." Jack said with a faint smile. "If you are pregnant, it will be at least eight months before she actually has to worry about it."

She swallowed slowly.

"You gonna be okay?" He asked, studying her closely. "I mean, with this if you are pregnant?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted softly. "It's all so fast. So sudden. So..."

"Unexpected?"

"Exactly." She admitted.

He reached for the test which he'd left in the plastic bag he'd brought home from the store with him. "Look, take the test, and then we'll talk, okay? I think you're supposed to take this pretty close to first thing in the morning."

She nodded slowly as she took the test from him. "Right..."

"This is a good thing," Jack assured, gently.

She looked somewhat faint as she walked slowly to the bathroom. "Right. It's a good thing..."

-

The minutes passed slowly as Sam bit her fingernail, nervously, as she sat on the bed.

She was now widely awake, though still somewhat queasy from before.

A plastic tube of crackers was thrust gently in her face, and she looked up in surprise.

"If you are pregnant, you should probably at least try a few of these...keep something in your stomach and all that..." Jack said with a small shrug.

"Right." She said, nodding slowly, as she opened the plastic and retrieved one of the saltines. She nibbled at the edge for a minute as her eyes darted back to the egg timer every few seconds.

"You know, they tend to ring when the time's up," Jack murmured as he sat down. 'You don't really have to keep checking to see if it's working."

"I'm just...nervous..." She said, turning back to him.

"I know. And believe it or not, so am I."

"You look so calm," she said, almost in wonder.

"You're freaking out right now," Jack said, wryly. "Can't have us both crazy, now can we?"

She managed a small chuckle as the timer rang. She froze, looking almost sick. "I...I can't look..." She whispered. "It's almost worse than when I got my SATs back...and Mark had to read those to me..."

"And they were probably perfect." He said as he walked over to the bathroom counter.

"Not quite." She said with a sick smile.

He looked at the test and consulted with the directions for a few moments as she inhaled. "What does it say?"

He was silent for a few moments with an expression that was hard to read. "Jack..." She whispered, looking over at him.

He turned back to her with a small smile on his lips. "In eight to nine months, you're going to give birth to a baby, Mrs. O'Neill."

She inhaled sharply as a smile grew on her lips. "Really?"

"If I'm reading this right," he chuckled.

She grabbed the test and the instructions from him, quickly scanning them before her jaw dropped open. Then, she turned and looked over at him with a grin. "We're going to have a baby."

"Yeah." He said, leaning over and kissing her softly. "We are."

She rested her cheek on his shoulder as she stared at the test in absolute shock. "We're going to have a baby..." She repeated. "Our very own baby..."

"And you were worried," he teased as he kissed her cheek, gently.

She looked over at him with a soft smile as he pulled her closer to him in a warm embrace. "Have I told you how much I love you yet today?"

"Have I told you?" She asked, looking back at him with moist eyes.

"I can hardly breathe whenever I look at you, knowing that you're finally my wife," he murmured as he nuzzled his face in her hair.

"I never knew life and love could be this...wonderful..." She returned with a gentle smile.

Jack squeezed her tightly. "You have no idea how happy I am. I mean, you're great with Grace, and I love her pieces, but..."

"I know," she whispered.

"Two kids, and we haven't even been married a year." He said, softly. "Crazy, maybe, but good."

"Yeah," she said with a faint smile. "Good." They sat back on the bed, and she turned back to him. "Why didn't we do this years ago?"

He smiled as he remembered her response to their first fishing trip. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

"Not really." Sam said with a small chuckle. "Just...not really."

He laughed as he kissed her cheek again. "Oh, my wife. My beautiful, darling, hopelessly hilarious, wife."


	13. Announcement

"Hold still," Sam chuckled as Grace mindlessly wiggled her toes with a small giggle.

"It tickles!" She protested as Sam tried once again to paint the five-year-old's toenails.

Sam couldn't help but chuckle as Grace tried to stay still. "Sorry. But that's the price for beauty..."

The door opened, and Jack walked in the door. "Where are my girls?" He asked with a booming voice.

"Up here on the couch," Sam called as Grace turned to see her father walk up the stiars.

"And what are you doing?"

"Painting our nails," Sam said without looking up. She'd finally gotten Grace distracted enough to stay still.

"Painting your nails?" Jack asked, feigning surprise. "You'd think I lived with females..."

"You do live with females, Daddy." Grace laughed as he sat down beside her.

"D'oh."

Sam smiled as she finally put the lid back on the nail polish. "Done, kiddo. Just be careful so that they dry smoothly."

"Okay, Mom." She said, pulling her legs from where they had lain across the couch to rest on Sam's lap gently.

Jack leaned over Grace so that he could kiss his wife. "Hey," he smiled.

"Hey," she said with a smile of her own.

"How you doin'?"

"Pretty well." She said with a faint smile. "How was your day?"

"Oh...frustrating. As usual."

"Sorry to hear it." She said, running a hand over the edge of the couch so that she could touch his arm affectionately.

"So...did you get your nails painted too?"

She smiled as she showed him her fingernails. "Yep."

He smiled at bright red nail polish which accented his wife's fingernails. "A bit bright, don't you think?"

"Grace chose it from the stuff I got from Vala a while ago. They both seem to think that I should be bolder."

He grinned as he tousled his daughter's hair. "Oh?"

"Daddy!" She cried. "My hair!"

Sam tried to refrain from smiling widely at the exclamation.

"What?"

"It took us an hour to do her hair like that," Sam said with a wry smile.

"An hour? For a braid?" He asked, skeptically.

"I'm a little rusty at French braids, okay?" She defended. "At least...on other people."

Jack chuckled as Grace looked up at her parents. "Can we watch a movie?"

"Fine with me," he said, looking over at his wife.

"Sounds good to me too." Sam admitted.

Grace grinned as she walked over to the cabinet which held the DVD collection, and Sam took the opportunity to cuddle up to her husband, resting her cheek on his shoulder.

Jack smiled as he looked over at his wife. "Awfully clingy, don't you think?" He teased, gently.

"I'm just glad you're home," she admitted with a tender smile as he wrapped his arm around her.

He kissed the top of her head, tenderly. "I'm glad to be home too. It's a jungle out there, I'm telling you."

Sam chuckled softly as Grace returned with a movie in hand. "Can we watch "Beauty and the Beast"?"

"Sure thing," Jack said, nodding.

Sam smiled softly. Grace had fallen in love with the Disney movie the moment she'd seen the first scene with Belle and her nose in a book. And Sam could see Grace growing up to be a great deal like the fictional character.

"Do we have any plans for dinner?" Jack asked, suddenly.

"Hungry?" Sam asked with a small smile as she looked up at him.

"Well...yeah..." He admitted.

Sam chuckled. "I have some soup stewing in the crockpot."

"Ah. The crockpot." Jack said with a small smile.

"Didn't feel much like cooking this morning," she admitted with a small smile. "So I got some pre-cut veggies at the store after I dropped Grace off at school, some broth, and some pasta, and pretended."

"But even when you pretend to know what you're doing, you manage to be more brilliant than most of us could hope to be in our entire lifetimes," he said with an affectionate chuckle.

"Oh, hush," she laughed. "You're flattering me."

"Is it working?" He asked with a wink.

She chuckled. "Maybe..."

"Hey, did you ever call and make that appointment?" He asked, softly, as the movie started.

"Yeah. Next Tuesday. Eleven A.M. Can you make it?" She asked, looking over at him.

"I'll always make it," he said, looking over at her. "That's not the thing to worry about."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'm not making you do any of this alone."

She managed a grateful smile. "Thanks."

He pulled his arm from around her and gently patted her knee as he prepared to stand. "I'd do anything for you, and you know it."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess I do."

"I'm going to the kitchen. Anyone want anything?" He asked, looking at Grace and at Sam equally.

Sam shook her head. "No thanks."

"Can I have some juice?" Grace asked without looking up at her father.

He nodded. "One juice coming up for the little princess." He looked over at his wife. "Sure I can't get anything for you?"

"Juice actually sounds good to me too." Sam admitted. "And maybe an apple."

"Juice and an apple for the lady of the house," Jack winked.

"Ooh, and some cheese."

Jack chuckled. "Looks like someone's found her appetite again."

Sam blushed lightly. "It just...sounded..."

"Just teasing you, hon." He smiled. "Cheese, apple, and juice."

"And crackers."

"And crackers." He added.

"To go with the cheese." She explained.

"Anything else for your pre-dinner feast?" He teased.

"No, that's it," Sam said somewhat sheepishly.

He chuckled softly before he turned back into the kitchen.

He returned a few moments later, offering the juice to his daughter and juice and a plate of snacks to his wife. "You know, you're cute when you have cravings," he whispered in her ear.

She giggled softly. "Well, you know, you did offer to help out with all of this," she returned with a chuckle.

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and placed the other hand on her flat stomach. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

She smiled as she looked down at his hand. She rested her cheek on his shoulder as they watched the movie with their daughter, and looked forward to the future when they'd bring a little piece of themselves into the world.

-

The doorbell rang as the O'Neill family sat down to dinner, and Sam looked over at her husband in surprise. "Are you expecting anyone?"

He shook his head. "Not that I know of."

Sam looked over at Grace. "Were you expecting anyone?"

She shook her head. "I haven't had one of my dreams."

Doc bounded down the stairs, barking as a knock came from the door.

"I'll go get it, then," Jack said, standing.

Sam nodded as Grace followed him down to the door.

She heard the door open in excitement. "Cassandra!" Her husband cried.

Sam grinned as she walked toward the stairs in time to see Jack embrace the young woman.

"Hi, Jack." She said, hugging him tightly. She pulled away before looking down at Grace. "Well, you look familiar."

Grace grinned as Doc bounced at Cassie's feet. "Hi, Cassie."

"Come on up," Sam invited from where she stood at the top of the stairs. "I think we've got enough soup for you."

"Yeah...she only made enough to serve a whole army," Jack quipped as he closed the door.

Cassie laughed. "Well, if anyone would know, it would be you."

He chuckled as he, Grace and Doc followed her up the stairs.

"Hey, Sam," Cassie murmured, hugging Sam gently.

"Hi there, stranger," Sam said with a small chuckle. "How's life in the big city of Baltimore?"

"A little tamer than the big city of Las Vegas," Cassie laughed softly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Sam said, nodding, as she set another place at the table for Cassie. She caught her husband's eye, and they shared a secret smile. "Really good, in fact."

Cassie's eyes darted between the two adults, instantly aware that something was happening. "So...ever get over that stomach flu?"

"Uh...yeah..." Sam said, nodding. "It's history."

"Good. You were worrying me there at the cabin."

Sam shrugged softly. "Nothing to worry about."

Cassie studied her for a few moments as Sam reached for Grace's hand and Cassie's hand. Cassie looked at her stangely.

"We're about to say "grace"," Jack whispered as he took her other hand.

"Oh. Right..."

"Not my name, Grace." Grace said, wisely. "It's a prayer. To thank God for our food."

Sam smiled softly. "Exactly right."

She looked up at her husband. "Uh...Grace, why don't you say it," he said, taking the hint from his wife that he should take the leadership here as the head of the table.

"Okay, Daddy." She said, bowing her head. "Thank you, God, for the food. Thank you for Doc, and Cassie, and thank you that we're a family. Amen."

"Amen," Sam breathed softly. She looked up and squeezed her daughter's hand with shining eyes. "That was beautiful, Grace."

Cassie studied her carefully. It looked like Sam was on the verge of tears. Happy ones, but...still. This was unusual for Sam.

Sam coughed slightly as she reached for the soup ladle. "Here, Grace," she said, serving her daughter a healthy portion of the soup.

"Thanks, Mommy."

Sam turned the ladle to Cassie. "Cass?"

"Uh, after you. Please." She said, shaking her head.

"You're the guest," Sam chided, gently.

"If you insist." Cassie said, taking her serving.

Sam looked up at her husband. "Soup?"

"Please." He said, offering her his bowl. She filled it nearly to the brim before finally serving herself a modest helping.

"Are you still feeling under the weather?" Cassie asked, looking over Sam.

"Actually, I forgot that dinner was so close to being finished and had a late snack that I probably shouldn't have," Sam said, sheepishly.

Cassie's eyebrow raised. Sam wasn't much of a snacker.

"What?" She asked, noticing the young woman's skepticism.

"You just...didn't used to snack much."

"Well, you didn't see me on the base," Sam laughed.

"That's true." Jack said with a wink. "I remember one time where she couldn't put the cookies down."

Sam looked over at him. "I think you and Daniel were right there along with me!"

"Well...that's true..."

"And we did try to go out for steak too."

"Try?" Jack asked with a chuckle. "I think we managed, hon. Or don't you remember the horrified look on the waitress's face when we ordered three steaks each."

"Four for Daniel, actually."

"Right..." She said, nodding.

They were suddenly aware of the blank stares they were getting from both Cassandra and Grace.

"Suffice it to say, I am quite the snacker when I choose to be," Sam coughed before she returned to her soup.

"Right." Cassie said, still feeling like something was up.

They ate in silence for a few moments before Cassie looked over at Sam. "So, have you been reassigned yet?"

Sam inhaled as she shook her head. "No. They're looking for a position either at Andrews or the Pentagon, but so far...there's just nothing..."

"I'm sure something will turn up."

"Well, I do have connections with the Pentagon," Sam winked as she looked over at her husband.

He laughed softly. "Which you've vowed never, EVER to abuse."

She smiled. "Yes, but I've still got half of Washington looking out for me because I'm your wife."

"It's true." He shrugged with a grin.

"I'm done!" Grace announced a few moments later. "Can I go read in my room before bed?"

Sam looked over at her husband, who looked back at their daughter. "Yeah. Go ahead."

"Thanks!" She cried, rushing into the bedroom.

"Okay, Sam, what's really going on?" Cassie asked, looking back at Sam as soon as Grace was out of earshot.

"Excuse me?"

"First of all, I lived with you for like...six months...you're not a snacker. Secondly, you and Jack have been giving each other goofy grins on and off for the past several minutes, and you were very careful about your wording when I asked about the stomach flu."

"I do not have the stomach flu." Sam said, honestly.

"Yes, but you also didn't say that you were feeling better." Cassie said, sharply. She looked at Jack and then she looked at Sam. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were dealing with morning sickness..."

Sam looked over at her husband with a deadpanned expression. They communicated nonverbally with one another before Sam looked back at Cassie. "That's because...I am." She said, cryptically.

A grin spread on Cassie's face. "Really? That's great! Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Because we didn't really want to jinx it. And we haven't told Grace yet." She admitted. "You know, in case something happens, we don't...we don't want her to have to..."

"Sam, you're in perfect health. What could happen?"

Sam shrugged. "I just...we wanted to kind of keep it between us for a little while."

"Admirable. But you can't hide it for long," Cassie admitted. "Especially with the goofy grins you keep exchanging..."

Sam chuckled softly. "Just a few more weeks, I think. Then, we'll be safe."

"I'll keep my mouth shut," Cassie said, theatrically.

"I think you missed your calling in life," Sam said, shaking her head as she took bowls and silverware from the table to the sink. "You're pure drama queen."

Cassie laughed heartily. "Go read to Grace, I'll do the dishes."

"You're sure?"

"Oh yeah. Just...do it." She said, shooing Sam from the kitchen.

Sam chuckled as she shook her head and knocked gently on Grace's bedroom door. She entered as Grace looked up. "Hi, Mommy."

"Hi, sweetheart." Sam greeted, leaning against the doorframe for a moment. "How's the new book?"

"It's kinda hard," Grace admitted. "There are some big words in it."

"Well, why don't I help you?" Sam asked, moving to sit next to her on the bed.

Grace fell silent, and Sam realized that something was wrong. Something bigger than the words she was nervous about. "What's wrong, Grace?"

"Are you trying to hide something from me?" She asked after a moment.

"What?" Sam asked, confused. "Why would you..."

"Cassie waited until I left, and then you were talking and laughing, and I wasn't there."

"Oh, honey," Sam whispered, hugging the little girl close to her for a moment. "It wasn't you."

"Then what were you talking about?"

Sam inhaled before she looked back at Grace. "Wait for a minute while I get your dad?"

She nodded slowly.

Sam stood and walked out the door. "Jack...she knows there's something going on..."

"You wanna tell her?"

"I think we should. Ironically, I think it would do more for her sense of security to tell her now..."

Jack nodded. "I agree." He looked over at Cassie as he threw the dish towel over to the counter. "Don't worry about drying. I'll do that when I'm done, okay?"

"Okay."

He put his hand at the small of his wife's back. "Let's do this thing, Carter."

She smiled softly as they walked in.

Grace was sitting up on her bed, and they each took positions on either side of her bed.

"Grace, we do have something that we'd like to tell you," Sam began softly.

"Is it bad?" She asked, fearfully.

"We don't think so," Jack said, matter-of-factly. "Actually, we think it's really exciting."

Sam smiled softly as he turned an eye to her. She looked back at Grace. "The other night, you were looking out at the stars. Remember?"

Grace nodded.

"And you made a wish, didn't you?"

She nodded again.

"What did you wish for?"

"I can't tell, Mommy. If you tell, it won't come true." She said, sagely.

"I heard you, Grace," Sam said with a small smile. "And you wished for a little baby brother or a little baby sister, didn't you?"

"I always wish for that," she said, shrugging. If her mother had heard, then she hadn't ACTUALLY told anyone...

"What if I told you that you're going to get your wish soon?" Sam asked with a small smile playing on her lips.

"You're adopting a baby?" Grace asked, eyes wide.

"No." Sam said, shaking her head. She patted her stomach gently. "I have one growing right here."

Grace looked down at her mother's stomach for a moment before she looked up at her mom with a grin. "YES!" She cried, excitedly.

Sam shared a chuckle with her husband as they looked back at Grace.

"That's what we were laughing about with Cassie," Jack told her. "She figured it out before we could tell you."

"Well, she IS going to be a doctor," Grace said, rolling her eyes at her parents.

"Yes, she is." Sam said, nodding.

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"We don't know yet," Sam admitted.

"I hope it's a boy."

"Really?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded, eagerly. "So that Daddy has someone to play ball with when you and I paint each other's nails."

Sam chuckled softly. "You don't think a baby sister would want to play ball with your dad?"

"Well, a baby girl would probably want to paint her nails like us." She said, logically.

"And a boy wouldn't want to do that," Sam finished.

"Yep."

Sam chuckled softly as she leaned in and kissed her daughter's forehead. "I love you, Grace. You're an odd duck, but I love you."

"Hey, that's why she fits in so well with our odd little family," Jack teased as he followed suit. "Love you, kiddo."

"I love you too, Mommy and Daddy." She said, looking up at them with a small smile. Then, she looked down at Sam's stomach. "I love you too, little brother...or sister..."

Sam smiled softly as she looked down at her belly, and then back down at her daughter as Jack reached over and caught her hand in his.


	14. Anniversary

"Sam," Jack murmured as he walked into the house after work.

"Hm?" She asked, lying on the couch with her feet propped up on the arm rest and a newspaper lying unceremoniously on her chest.

"You awake?"

"Trying not to be," she admitted with her eyes closed.

He smiled softly. "Where's Grace?"

"Friend's house."

"At five-thirty?"

"She was invited to stay for dinner."

"Ah." He said, nodding slowly. He looked back at her. "Sam?"

"Wha?"

"What do you want to do for our anniversary?"

Her eyes fluttered open instantly. "Anniversary?"

"Yeah. Three days from now? Did you forget?"

"No." She lied quickly.

"You are a terrible liar," he chuckled. "You forgot."

"I've had a few things on my mind," she reminded, somewhat cranky.

"I know," he said, leaning over to kiss her forehead, gently. "Which is why I wanted to know what you wanted to do."

She inhaled and exhaled as she folded the newspaper. She stretched gently as she rested her hands on her softly curved belly. She'd just started to show her pregnancy in the last few days, and Jack had to smile softly.

"Um...honestly, I'm not sure a weekend away would be much fun. I'd be too worried about Grace, and too tired for any...well, let's be honest, "fun stuff"..."

"Still might be nice to spend some quality time with you, though," he admitted.

"I'm not sure I want to leave Grace with anyone. Not with the tough time she's had with her nightmares lately," Sam said, wincing slightly.

"Okay. So, we stay home."

Sam nodded slowly. "I think that would be a good idea."

"Dinner out?"

"Always a good idea," Sam said, struggling to sit upright.

Jack grabbed her hands, and gently helped her up.

She rubbed her barely rounded stomach, gently. "This kid must be like you because morning sickness lasted about six weeks, and then I discovered a whole new side of appetite."

Jack laughed softly.

"And you gave me grief about my big lunch before my first trip through the Stargate..." Sam said, shaking her head.

"So, dinner. Dancing?"

"Uh, maybe here, but I don't think anyone wants to see a big ol' pregnant woman dance," she muttered, more than a little moody.

"You're not big," Jack said, affectionately. "Your body's just changing to accommodate the new one it's making."

Sam raised an eyebrow.

"And...that's all on that subject," Jack finished, quickly.

"Look, whatever you want to do is fine with me," she said, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm pregnant. Where do you think I'm going?" Sam asked, heading to the bathroom.

Maybe it was a good thing that Grace was at a friend's house, Jack thought to himself. And maybe a candle-lit dinner at home with some soft music in the background would be the solution to his anniversary plans.

He looked over at the coffee table to find a small notebook sitting beside a large catalog.

"What's this on the table, honey?" He called to her.

The sound of a toilet flushing was heard as Sam exited the bathroom, drying her hands on a towel. "Uh...just some ideas I had for the nursery."

"We don't even know if it's a girl or a boy yet," Jack said, looking over at her. "You have ideas for a nursery?"

She shrugged as she sat back down. "A lot of this stuff can be done for either. I mean, both girls and boys need cribs, and they don't exactly make them differently for boys and girls."

"True." He said, nodding slowly.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go and do some shopping sometime soon. I need maternity clothes, and we need to get some ideas for the nursery."

"Sure. Sounds fun. Should I find a sitter for Grace?"

She inhaled. "I..."

"Look, if we wait until the weekend, we can leave her with Cassie, and have a few hours alone to ourselves, okay?"

"If our anniversary is three days from now, then we'll end up doing that for our anniversary," she sighed.

"So?" Jack asked, shrugging. "So it's not the most romantic thing in the world? But how much of our relationship was?"

"True." She said, nodding.

"Look, I'll take you out to eat, we'll go and do some shopping, and I'll give you a foot massage when we get home, okay?"

"That sounds perfect," she admitted.

"Excellent. Then, that's what we'll do."

"Hey," she said, looking over at him with a faint smile.

"Hm?"

"I know I was a little...cranky...earlier."

He shrugged. "Happens to the best of us."

She nodded slowly. "Anyway, I wanted to make sure you knew that I do love you, and I am happy about the baby."

He smiled softly. "I know. But it's still nice to hear once in a while."

She leaned over and kissed him gently.

"What was that for?"

"Well, apparently, my hormones took a turn in your favor, Jack O'Neill," she winked.

"Oh, really?" He asked, turning a surprised eye to her.

"Yep. And Grace won't be home until six-thirty or so, and we have to pick her up, so..."

"We've got some time to kill," he grinned as he leaned in and kissed her.

-

_Three days later:_

Sam inhaled as she looked over at the closet, dressed in her cotton pajama pants and a camisole. "What exactly am I supposed to wear tonight?" She asked, looking out the bedroom door at her husband.

"Whatever makes you feel most comfortable, honey," he said as he walked in.

"Comfortable..." She said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you realize how little there is in my wardrobe that fits that description right now?"

"That's why I said it," he said with a small shrug.

She bit her lip. "Do you want dressy? Or not dressy? I mean, what are we doing for dinner?"

"We're doing whatever you want for dinner," he said, seriously. "Italian, Mexican..."

She looked somewhat green at his Mexican offer.

"So...not Mexican."

She swallowed. "Sorry."

"We can do Chinese, burgers, steak..."

"Ooh. Steak." She murmured, hungrily. "With mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables..."

"Okay. Steak, it is." He said with a small chuckle.

"So we should dress up a little more," she said, biting her lip. "If we're going to a steakhouse..."

"Sam, if you want to wear my sweats to the mall, that's fine with me." He said, seriously. "And if you want me to get takeout from some steakhouse, I'll do it."

She managed a wry smile. "I think I can find something in my wardrobe that will still fit me."

"All right." He said, noncommittally.

She walked over to the closet, and pulled out a few things that had hung more loosely on her frame.

"There's this..." She said, showing him a simple, flowing navy blue dress.

"That's nice," he said, nodding.

"I wore it once." She said with a small sigh. "To a funeral."

"If you don't want to wear it, then don't wear it." He said, simply.

She bit her lip. "Well, I'll try it. I'd rather wear this than your sweats. At least for now..."

He chuckled softly. "You know, I was just planning on wearing jeans and a t-shirt."

"We'll try it," she murmured, pulling out a pair of jeans and one of her blouses. She managed to get them up to her hips, and moved to button them. With an inch difference between the two sections of waistband, she looked over at her husband. "Yeah. And these were the biggest pair I had."

"I don't doubt it, but I have an idea..." He said, reaching for a rubber band.

"What are you doing?" She asked, studying him closely.

"Just watch," he said, reaching for her jeans. He gently slipped the band through the button hole and looped it around itself so that it was securely fastened to the button hole. Then, he took the free end, and wrapped it across the button. "It's not perfect, but it'll work for now."

The pants were now fastened with the makeshift fastener.

"You're a regular MacGyver, Mr. O'Neill," she chuckled softly as he looked back up at her.

"Nah." He said, shaking his head. "Just a somewhat inventive guy who can make his wife happy once in a while."

"More than just once in a while," she murmured affectionately.

"Now, you probably want a long shirt that will cover the waistline of your pants, but..."

"That...is a little easier," Sam chuckled softly as she walked over and pulled out a long t-shirt. She slipped it over her figure before turning back to him. "Somewhat decent?"

"More than that," he smiled. "You're the down-to-Earth woman I married."

"Oh, that's romantic," she said with a wry chuckle.

He leaned over and kissed her gently. "It is to me," he murmured as he inhaled the scent of her hair.

She giggled softly as she looked over at him with a tender look in her eye. "It's been an adventure," she said, softly.

"One of the most marvelous ones at that," he admitted.

She chuckled. "We may be celebrating our first anniversary, but we've traveled the road together for a lot longer than that."

"Yeah. I figure that if we can fight alien bad guys together, we should be able to handle anything these kids can give us," he said, resting his hand on her belly.

She smiled softly. "Even my crazy hormones?"

"Hey, we managed to handle those once before..."

She blushed at the memory of the "sweet little tank top number" incident. "Not one of my best moments..."

He chuckled. "Really? I thought it was kinda cute."

"Cute?" She asked, skeptically. "The words coming to mind are primitive and primal. Not cute."

He laughed, softly. "Hey, you didn't see me go all alpha male on Daniel's hiney when he asked about you."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What?"

"Oh yeah..."

"You beat Daniel up for me?"

"Uh...yeah..."

She chuckled softly. "Good thing he understood that it was an alien influence."

"And is naturally forgiving."

She grinned. "Yep."

"Well, Cassie has taken Grace out to that new princess movie she wanted to see so badly, and we are both dressed now. Shall we begin our festivities a little on the early side?"

"I'm up for it," she said, amicably.

"Excellent." He said with a small wink.

"Hey, Jack..." She said as he walked toward the exit.

"Hm?" He asked, turning back to her.

"I have something for you," she admitted with a small blush.

"Oh?"

She nodded, and he walked back into the room as she retrieved a small envelope. "It doesn't look like much, but..."

He looked at her strangely before he opened it. Inside was her resignation paperwork. "I'm willing to go either way, Jack," she murmured softly. "If I hadn't had an immediate assignment, I would have given this to you for our wedding, but...mail it or file it away for another day, whatever would make you happiest."

He looked at her for a moment before he closed the envelope, too overcome for words at the moment. She could see that he recognized the sacrifice it had been for her to put her career in his hands, and he looked down for a few moments before he looked back up at her. "Thank you."

She smiled softly as he reached over and retrieved his own envelope which he handed to her silently.

She looked at him strangely before she opened it and gasped. Inside was his retirement paperwork. "It would seem that your great mind and my inferior one crossed paths at one time or another."

She looked at him with tears shining in her eyes. "You'd be willing to do this?"

He nodded. "I've always been willing. Just waited for you to ask."

"I would never have asked," she whispered softly.

"Neither would I."

"Then I guess we're at a standstill."

"I'm offering," Jack said, softly. "If you want to go back to work and still have someone home with the kids."

"So am I." She said, seriously. "And it would make a little more sense for me to do it since I'm not currently assigned to anything in particular."

"Yes, but you're of more value to the program..."

"My vast majority of my value is scientific, Jack. And not being Colonel Carter does not mean that I can't be Dr. Carter."

"True, but your leadership and expertise..."

"Has only been appreciated by the Air Force and not by the IOA," she interrupted. "Which makes it highly unlikely that I'll get many more commands...at least in the program. Whereas, you have been highly praised by both."

"The IOA are a bunch of pencil-pushing idiots who don't know a good thing when they see it." He said, bitterly.

"Jack..."

"It's true. Don't tell me that it isn't."

"It's the same argument every time we try to talk about this, isn't it..."

He nodded. "I guess so."

"Then, I guess we leave it as is until things change?"

"Sounds good to me." He admitted.

"And when I start back at work?" She asked, softly.

"I can do most of my meetings in the morning and early afternoon and do the paperwork at home." He admitted. "So that no matter what you end up doing, I can be home when Grace gets home."

"And when the baby comes?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist as he hugged her tightly. "I love you, Sam." He murmured in her ear. "Happy anniversary."

"Happy anniversary, Jack," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly. "And I love you too."


	15. Emergency

"Sam?"

The voice echoed in her subconscious mind as she groaned inwardly at the pain in her stomach. Cramping...she hadn't cramped this badly since college.

"Sam, are you okay?"

Her husband's voice slowly woke her from her sleepy haze.

"Hm?" She asked, finally managing to open her eyes to find Jack's worried brown eyes staring into her own.

"You've been groaning and moving a lot. You okay?"

"Fine." She said as another cramp overcame her.

She grimaced as she wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to find some way to alleviate the pain.

"Sam?" He prodded again.

Suddenly, her eyes widened in fear as she remembered her pregnancy. She wasn't supposed to be cramping.

"Jack..." She whispered, looking over at him worriedly.

"What?" He asked, noticing the panic in her eyes.

With a trembling hand, she removed the sheets to find a rapidly spreading red stain. She clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out and waking Grace.

"I'm calling a sitter and an ambulance." Jack said, jumping out of bed instantly as he reached for his cell phone.

Sam felt tears well up in her eyes as she stared at the blood in horror. "No," she murmured. "No...no, no, no, no, no..."

-

"I couldn't think of anyone but Lt. Johnson - my assistant..." Jack murmured as he returned to the master bedroom.

Sam nodded, numbly. She could feel her body going into shock. This couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not to Jack.

Her skin felt cold and clammy, and her thoughts were moving more slowly than molasses.

"Ambulance will be here any minute. Can you walk?"

She managed to slip out of bed. Her legs began to buckle beneath her, and she felt the blood rush from her face. She turned an eye to Jack as if she was going to say something, but she didn't get the chance before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed.

With a bolt of adrenaline, Jack managed to catch her before she could injure her head as well.

He looked up from her face in an effort to determine how much blood she had lost. He felt somewhat faint, himself, when he saw the blood on the sheets. It was a miracle that she was still alive by his experienced estimation. If he hadn't woken her when he had...

He refused to finish that thought.

"Sam," he murmured, gently tapping her face. "Sam, honey, wake up..."

There was no response from his unconscious wife.

"Don't do this to us," he prayed, feeling for a pulse as he bent his ear to feel and hear her breathing. Her pulse was weak, but still there. And she was breathing intermittently.

There was a knock at the door, and he struggled to get Sam back onto the bed before he could go and answer the door.

As he was just laying Sam down, he heard the door open. "General, sir? Are you here?"

Jack turned to meet Marcie as he heard a smaller, more timid voice.

"Daddy?"

Grace was such a light sleeper that she must have heard the whole commotion, he thought to himself as he looked down and realized that he was covered in his wife's blood.

"Be out in a minute." Jack called, quickly mopping up the blood as well as he could before he opened the door. He heard the sirens of the ambulance come closer. He looked over at Sam who still lay in bed, unconscious. That didn't bode well, he thought for a moment as the paramedics knocked on the town home door.

"I'll get it," Marcie announced, taking in the sight of her commanding officer, dressed in his pajamas which were already stained with his wife's blood.

Grace stood outside the door with wide eyes, and he tried to hide both Sam and the bloody parts of his clothing from her view. "Honey, I need you to go back to bed, okay?"

"What's wrong?" She asked, astutely.

"Mommy's sick. She'll be fine, but we need to take her to the hospital."

"I want to take Mommy to the hospital too." She said, her eyes on fire with determination.

"No, sweetheart." He said, bending down and picking her up. He took her down the hall to her bed. "But we'll get her all better, and you can see tomorrow, okay?"

Grace's lower lip trembled as Marcie walked into the room. "I sent them down the hall to your room, sir." She said, soberly.

"Can you take over here?" Jack asked, looking over at her.

She nodded, and he left the room quickly.

"What happened?" One of the paramedics asked as he entered the room.

"Bedroom. She's pregnant. She must have started cramping somewhere during the night." He explained. "She awoke a few minutes ago to find that she was bleeding. I called 9-1-1 and a sitter. When I came back, she fainted from the loss of blood." He felt himself going into shock. On the battlefield, he could handle this sort of thing with precision. At home...

"I...I can't wake her up..." He whispered, numbly.

"We'll get her taken care of, sir." The paramedic assured as he returned to taking care of Sam.

Jack watched helplessly as they cared for his wife.

He didn't know what he would do if Sam lost the baby or if she died alongside it.

He certainly wouldn't let himself go to the same place he'd gone with Charlie. He'd never lose Sam like he'd let himself lose Sara.

-

Jack paced in the waiting room of the ER. They'd taken Sam straight from the ambulance to the OR, having deduced in the ambulance that the pregnancy had already been naturally aborted, and that Sam's hemorrhaging was the next priority.

His cell phone rang, and he looked at it absently. The caller ID read Daniel Jackson.

He pressed the "send" button as he pressed the small device to his ear. "Hi, Daniel."

"Jack, what's going on? I tried to call Sam on her cell and at home...there was a bit of an emergency on base, and I wondered if she had any idea how to handle it, but all I got was a...Lieutenant Johnson saying that she was in the hospital."

"She woke up cramping and bleeding." He said, knowing that the archaeologist would know how hard it was for him to talk about saving the planet right now as he swallowed down hot tears. "The baby's gone. They're just trying to save Sam now..."

"What can I do to help?" Daniel asked after a moment of shocked silence.

"At this point?" He asked, wearily. "Just pray."

-

Several hours later, Jack sat in one of the chairs with his elbows resting on his knees as he covered his face with his hands. The last time he'd really prayed was when they'd brought Charlie to the hospital.

He'd held on for a few days in the ICU before he'd finally passed away.

"I'm trusting you," he murmured to the heavens. "Even when everything inside me says I shouldn't. Don't let me down."

The sound of footsteps on the tile caused Jack to look up.

"Mr. O'Neill?"

"That's me." Jack said, standing as he realized that the doctor was there to see him.

"We've managed to stabilize your wife." He said, soberly.

Jack studied the thirty-some-odd-year-old man. He looked worn and tired. Like it had been a fight.

"What happened?" Jack asked, pressing his hands together so that his forefingers touched his nose and lips as they pointed to the heavens. The other fingers were interlocked and his thumbs rested on the underside of his jaw.

"Well, we're still running some tests to find out, but from what we can tell, there was some scar tissue in the uterus which had been neglected from some previous injury. It may have caused some problems in the placenta which resulted in malnourishment of the fetus which may have caused it to spontaneously abort, but regardless, as the placenta was being released from her body, it tore, causing her to hemorrhage." He sighed. "We went in and removed the scar tissue and what remained of the placenta. She should be fine."

Jack removed his hands from his face with a sigh of relief. "When can I see her?"

"Not for a while yet." The doctor admitted. "We want to keep a close eye on her for a little while in case we missed something. That way, we can wheel her in quickly."

He nodded soberly.

"I'll have someone come and get you when you can see her."

"Thanks." He said, tiredly.

The doctor nodded as he turned to leave.

Jack sighed softly as he sunk back into the chair. She was stable. Maybe it would be a little while before he could see her, but she was alive. And she was going to pull through.

While their baby had gotten less than a fighting chance.

He stood instantly as anger welled up inside him. He walked over to the wall, almost aimlessly before he hit it with his fist. He struck another blow with with his other fist. He alternated fists rapidly as one of the orderlies came by. "Excuse me, sir?"

He pulled away, his breath slowing as he looked over at her. "I'm sorry..." He murmured numbly before he walked further down the corridor.

More punishment for the "damned distasteful" things he'd done over the years? And what about Sam?

His heart froze as he thought about his wife. This would devastate her. She'd wanted kids for so long, and though she loved Grace, she'd gotten excited about this pregnancy. More than she'd gotten about any science project he'd ever seen her work on which given his wife's attachment to her scientific explorations, was saying a lot.

This would destroy her.

He sighed. He'd at least faced this pain before, and knew that while it was paralyzing and overwhelming, he could overcome it. He could make something of this broken life he'd been given. He only hoped that she could do the same...

"I need you, Sam," he whispered softly. "I need you more than life itself."

-

She felt groggy. Someone had given her something. Some sort of sedative or pain killer...

She stirred gently. She needed to wake her mind up. What if she was the only one alert enough to get them home?

"Go to the Gate..." she murmured, still somewhat half-under, as she tried to reach anyone who might be in a better position to help than she. "Radio for help..."

"Sam?" Jack asked, appearing in her line of sight as she opened her eyes.

"Sir? What are you doing here?"

"Sam, you're on Earth," he reminded, gently.

"Oh."

She looked around the room. She was in a hospital. She felt a the cold metal of her wedding band. She wasn't out in the field at all. She was married. With a kid. And another on the way.

"What happened?" She finally managed.

Jack's face was suddenly lined with pain, and she looked up at him, worriedly. "An accident?"

He shook his head. "Uh...no..."

Suddenly, it all came back to her. The cramping, the blood, the dizziness, the terror...

"Jack, tell me we didn't..." She began as she felt panic well up within her.

"It was all they could do to save your life," he said, softly.

She inhaled sharply as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm...I'm s-so sorry," she stammered.

"Hey," he said, gently catching her fingers in his hand. "Not your fault. It happens..."

"But..."

He pressed a finger to her lips as he sat beside her on the bed. "You're still here. And for now...that's enough of a miracle for me."

"I know how much you wanted..."

"You wanted it too," he said, knowingly. "So, for the moment, we're going to get you better. Then, maybe we'll think about trying again."

"What did they say about...why..."

He inhaled. "They said it was probably the scar tissue they found when they went in to stop the bleeding."

"From when I was shot..." She managed. "By the Or...

"It could have been one of countless injuries you've sustained for our country, Sam." He interrupted, trying to keep her from that place in her mind. That was a bad place to go. And he'd been there more than a few times.

"That doesn't matter," she murmured as angry tears welled up in her eyes. "The fact is that my career stole my baby..."

"Hey," he managed with a shaky voice. "Don't start that..."

"How can I not?" She asked through her tears. "All I wanted to do was to..."

She broke down, and as she tried to wipe her tears away, she could see the tears slipping down his cheeks. She reached for and grasped his hand. "How can it hurt this much," she asked after a moment. "To lose something you didn't think you were ever going to get?"

He covered his eyes with one of his hands, trying to hide his tears from her as they turned into silent sobs that shook his body with the effort to keep them locked away.

"Please...Jack..." She whispered as her own tears blurred her vision.

She wanted him to take her into his arms. Despite the fact that it would probably hurt her physically. She needed the comfort more than the respite.

Finally, he dropped his head to lean against her shoulder, and she touched him, turning her closest hand almost backwards as she clutched at his sleeve somewhat awkwardly. His body racked her own as his sobs pierced the silence of the hospital ward. She felt tears slip down her cheeks as she tried to stay strong for her husband. He needed her. She couldn't just fall to pieces like she wanted because he needed her.

That was the only thing keeping her together right now. He needed her.


	16. Aftershocks

Jack walked into the house with a small sigh. The doctors had sent him from Sam's room so that they could both get some "much needed rest". He rubbed his eyes as he closed and locked the door. He wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. At least not for long.

"How is she, sir?"

Jack looked up to see his assistant standing at the top of the stairs. "Uh...she'll be fine," he muttered. "I'll bring Grace to see her tomorrow."

"She lost the baby, didn't she?" She asked, noticing the lines on his face.

He'd been so proud when he'd announced to her that he was going to be a father again.

He paused for a moment as he moved to get up the stairs. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry to hear it," she said, softly.

He managed a thin, but somewhat grateful smile as he got to the top of the stairs. "Thanks. How was Grace?"

"She was a little hysterical for a bit. She's worried about Colonel Carter."

He nodded, absently.

"I went ahead and made some breakfast casserole for the morning. It's just eggs, hashbrowns, and sausage, but I didn't think that you'd want to cook when Grace was ready for breakfast in the morning."

"That's nice of you. Thanks." He heard himself saying.

"I'll be going, if that's all, sir?"

He nodded before fumbling for his wallet. "Thanks for coming. Not exactly in your job descript..."

He felt a hand on his arm. "Please." She said, shaking her head. "Don't even think about it."

He nodded numbly as he put the wallet back in his pocket. "Thank you," he finally managed, wearily.

"I'll cancel your meetings until further notice," she said, checking with him, but he'd ceased to listen a long time before she got to that point.

He nodded slowly, though he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to. "That'll be fine, Lieutenant."

She studied him for a moment before she walked down the stairs and slipped out the door.

He walked slowly to the bedroom, briefly pausing by Grace's room on the way there. Soft moonlight streamed in through the giant picture window, and for a moment, he could have sworn that a cherubic angel lay in the bed. That was Sam's official nickname for the girl, after all. Grace was her little angel.

He felt tears coming again, and he looked away. He probably didn't want to wake Grace. It was nearly six o' clock in the morning, after all.

She stirred as the floor beneath him creaked lightly. "Daddy?"

He took a few deep breaths as he walked slowly toward her bed, and sat beside her. "Hey there, how's my princess?" He managed.

Her eyes were open with worry. "Is Mommy okay?"

He swallowed. "She will be."

"What about my new baby brother or sister?"

He inhaled. "You're...you're not going to get a new baby brother or sister anymore, Grace. Not right now, anyway."

She looked up at him with wide eyes, but she could see that he didn't want to talk about it. "But Mommy's okay?"

He nodded slowly. "She's still at the hospital, and will be for a little while, but...she's been through worse."

"She's strong," Grace said, nodding.

"Yep. That she is."

He sounded so much more matter-of-fact than he wanted to be, he thought to himself.

"I'm not sleepy anymore," Grace murmured softly.

"Me either," he admitted.

"What should we do?"

"I need to call some people..."

"That can wait," she said, wisely.

"I suppose it is a little on the early side for anyone in Colorado." He reasoned, absently. But his friends kept such strange hours because of their jobs that it wouldn't surprise him if someone was awake to take his call. Especially since he'd already started telling Daniel about Sam.

"Do I have to go to school?" Grace asked after a moment.

Jack looked over, suddenly back in the real world, before he shook his head. "No, sweetheart. Today, I won't make you go to school."

Grace nodded slowly. "Maybe we can eat breakfast, take Doc for a walk, and then...go see Mommy?"

"I think that would be a very good idea," he admitted.

She looked at his blood-stained shirt. "You should probably change," she said, softly.

He looked down absently. "You're probably right about that, kiddo." He sighed before he looked back at her. "Get dressed, then I'll get you some breakfast."

"Okay, Daddy."

He stood slowly. He was stiff from a night of waiting, hoping and praying. He walked into the bedroom, almost afraid to see the mess that had been left behind in the hurry to get Sam to the hospital. He was surprised to find that the bed had been remade, and that any trace of the night's events had been cleaned up.

God bless Marcie Johnson, he thought to himself. When he got back to work, she was getting recommended for whatever he could get her. Promotion, vacation, pay raise...

His cell phone rang, and he considered not answering. He wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone.

The insistent buzzing of his phone finally made him look at the caller ID. Cassandra.

He inhaled before opening the phone. "Hi, Cass."

"Jack, I just got Daniel's call. Is she okay?"

"She's stable," he murmured. "For now, that's good enough for me."

"Daniel said she miscarried."

"Yeah." Jack said, softly. "Yeah, she did."

"I'm coming down there."

"She'd want you to finish the week with your studies," Jack said with a small sigh. "We'll survive..."

"Jack..."

"This is med school. It's not like your GE astronomy class that Sam could help you with when she got shot."

"I'm coming down this weekend." Cassie promised. "No "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it."

"Okay."

"How's Grace? Have you told her yet?"

"She's taking it better than Sam or me..." He said, soberly.

"Well, she's younger, and she hasn't had a lot of time with the information, I would guess."

"That's true." He said, softly.

"Jack, I...I just don't know what to say," she murmured. "I wish..."

"Yeah. That's about as far as any of the rest of us have gotten," he said, softly.

"Tell Sam to call me, okay?"

"I will."

"And if she doesn't call by lunchtime, I'll call her."

"Got it."

"All right. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will."

"Bye, Jack."

"Bye, Cass."

Jack walked over to the closet, and winced slightly as he saw some of the new items which his wife had hung carefully in the closet in anticipation of her blossoming pregnancy. He closed his eyes before reaching into his side of the closet and pulling out his faded blue jeans and a t-shirt. He didn't care which one today, not that he ever really cared, but today? Today was a day for sweats, honestly.

He emerged a few moments later in a black tee and jeans. Grace was already sitting at the table, having served herself and her father some of the breakfast casserole which Marcie had left for them.

She'd even poured them both some orange juice.

Jack walked over and pulled out his chair, haphazardly plopping down on it with a weary sigh. He raised his fork in an effort to try and eat something, but he was only really able to push the food around on his plate.

He could feel Grace's eyes on him, and he reached for his cup. "Thank you, Grace," he murmured as he took a sip.

"I don't know how to make coffee," she said, softly. "So I got you juice."

He managed a small, but grateful smile, though pain was in every line of his face. "You did a good job, Grace."

"We don't have to go anywhere, Daddy." She whispered with understanding. "Not if you don't want to go."

"Doc needs a walk," Jack said, shaking his head. "And I could use the exercise."

She got off her chair, silently, and took her plate, cup and utensils to the sink. She tried to reach for the kitchen faucet, but Jack stood behind her. "Leave the dishes. It'll give us something to do when we get back from seeing your mommy."

She nodded, soberly.

"Ready, kiddo?" He asked, trying to sound more lighthearted than he really was.

"I'm ready," she said, nodding affirmatively.

"Come on, Doc!" He cried, half-heartedly, as they walked toward the front door.

The boisterous golden retriever must have sensed the emotional turmoil in the household because he didn't just bound into the room as usual, but walked unusually slowly with his tail dusting the floor behind him sadly.

Jack reached for the dog leash and bent down to connect him to it. His fingers fumbled clumsily with the latch, and he sighed and pulled away. He inhaled and exhaled before leaning in to try it again. Within a matter of seconds, the dog's collar was connected to the leash. "Let's go," he murmured as he stood.

He wasn't paying much attention on the walk, but Doc's good nature and Grace's tight clasp of his hand kept them all in line. He felt like he was watching his life pass slowly ahead of him instead of actively participating in it. It was times like these when he knew he believed Sam's ramblings about the relativity of time. How else could one explain how twenty-four hours could feel like a year under one set of circumstances while in another set of circumstances it could feel like an hour?

Before he knew it, they had arrived back home, and he'd taken the dog's leash off.

"You should eat something, Daddy." Grace said, looking up at him.

"I'll...try again." He mumbled, heading upstairs. He forced a few bites of the casserole, and Grace watched him, carefully.

When he'd set his fork down for the last time, she looked over at him. "Should we go now?"

He inhaled before he nodded. "I think that would be a good idea. Your mom's probably waking up right about now." He looked over at Grace with a worn smile. "I'm sure seeing her angel would brighten up her day."

Grace nodded, looking considerably older than her five years.

"C'mere." He invited, opening his arms to the little girl.

She hugged him, resting her cheek on his shoulder. "I'm sorry you're so sad," she whispered.

A lump grew in his throat as he held her tightly. "I love you, Grace," he whispered, hugging her tightly as tears slipped down his cheeks.

"I love you too, Daddy," she whispered, returning the hug.

-

They walked slowly into Sam's room. Her eyes were closed, and Jack bit the inside of his cheek. The nurses had suggested she might be asleep. They'd had to sedate her again to get her to sleep through the rest of the night. Jack sighed softly. He should have been here. He should have been there to hold her hand and tell her that everything would be all right.

Grace walked slowly toward her mother's bed, studying her closely. "She's asleep," she said, looking back at her father, who still stood in the doorway.

He nodded. "Looks like it," he said, nodding.

Sam stirred at the sounds of the soft voices, and opened her eyes to find Grace peering over at her.

"Hi, angel," Sam murmured, her words slurring lightly with the effects of her sedation.

"Hi, Mommy," she said softly, taking another step forward.

"Why aren't you in school?" Sam asked, gently stroking the five-year-old's cheek.

"Daddy said I didn't have to go today. 'Cuz you're sick."

Sam nodded slowly, still in the haze of her drug-induced sleep. "I see."

"Are you feeling better now?"

"A little," she murmured, closing her eyes for a moment longer than usual.

"Daddy, she's awake," Grace said, turning to her father.

"I see that," he said, walking over and sitting in the chair beside her bed. He gently brushed the hair from her face as he leaned in to look at her. "Hey," he whispered, gently.

"Hi."

"I heard that the nurses had to sedate you last night. Get you to sleep."

She swallowed, silently.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up," he whispered, gently. "They kicked me out. Told me to go home and get some sleep."

"Did you?"

He looked away. "Went home..."

"Couldn't sleep either?"

"Yeah."

She looked away for a moment, and he took the opportunity to kiss her forehead. "I love you, Sam."

She managed a fractured half of a smile. "I know. I love you too."

"Daniel called when we were on our way," he began. "He and Vala and Teal'c have all gotten leave for a little while. They're coming out today."

"Nice of them," she murmured, drifting slowly back into her dreamless sleep.

"Cassie wants you to call her. Or she'll call you. And she's coming this weekend..."

"She should study."

"I tried to tell her..." Jack said, limply.

"Mark...call Mark..."

"I left a message for him last night. I'm still waiting for a call back."

Her eyes had slipped closed a few moments before, and now, he could hear her breathing even out in the regular deep breathing of the sleeping.

He kissed her forehead once more before he looked over at Grace. "Let's go home, kiddo. We'll let your mommy rest."

"Are you sure she's going to be all right?" Grace asked, looking up at him with worried eyes.

"You remember what you said earlier?" He asked, looking down at her with as much of a reassuring smile as he could muster.

Her brow furrowed.

"Your mommy's strong." He said, kneeling down so that he could look at her on her level. "And with you and me to help her get better, she'll be just fine."

"Promise?" She asked with a trembling lip.

"Cross my heart," he said, marking an "x" on his chest.

Grace's eyes welled up with tears as she threw her arms around his neck. "I don't want to lose Mommy like I lost my other mommy!" She sobbed.

Jack held her tightly as tears welled up in his eyes again. "Oh, baby, I don't want to lose her either."


	17. Hope

_Two weeks later:_

Jack walked slowly into the kitchen after a long day at the Pentagon, still dressed in his blues, but he didn't feel much like changing. At least not yet.

"How is she, Daniel?" He asked, as he passed Daniel, who sat at his laptop, typing something.

Daniel looked up. "Who? Sam?"

Jack didn't answer verbally, just gave him a shadow of the look he would have gotten if Jack had been himself.

"Right. Sam." He said, nodding. "Uh, well...she hasn't moved. I tried to bring her something to eat, but she didn't even acknowledge that I'd been there."

Jack just nodded slowly as he reached for a cup.

Daniel studied his haggard friend. He looked somewhat more rugged than usual with a noticeable bit of stubble growing on his cheeks and chin. He looked like he'd been to hell and back several times in the last few weeks.

Jack pressed his finger into the cup in an effort to determine whether or not it was clean before he reached for the coffee pot. He grimaced slightly when he realized that the liquid in it was the cold remains of what had been left from this morning. He poured the dark liquid down the drain before rinsing it out.

"How are you doing, Jack?"

"Fine." Jack murmured as he began the preparations for another pot of coffee.

"You're fine?" Daniel asked, skeptically. "You look awful."

"Remind me not to call you when I need a boost," Jack said, wryly, still not looking at the archaeologist.

"Must be tough. Losing the baby like that. Not being able to talk to Sam with the way she's been acting."

Jack hung his head as he leaned his body weight on his hands which were pressed against the counter top. He inhaled, and then returned to his normal stature. "I said I'm fine, Danny."

"Look, I know you too well to believe you," Daniel said with a raised eyebrow. "I know you've got some skeletons which have probably reared their ugly heads, and as much as I would like you to be able to take them to Sam, I don't think that's an option right now."

Jack was silent for a few more moments, waiting for the coffee to percolate excitedly in the coffee maker. It was only a few minutes before Jack had a fresh cup of coffee in his hands, and he took a sip without thinking once about how hot it was. He grimaced slightly as he looked down at the brown liquid. Then, he set it down on the counter and leaned his backside against it.

"She was terrified, Daniel," he whispered, lost in the terrible memory of the night Sam had miscarried. "I didn't know how bad it had gotten until she passed out from the loss of blood." He shuffled his feet for a moment, looking down at the dark leather shoes he wore. "Quite frankly, I was surprised she was still alive when I finally saw just how much blood she'd lost. And so, when I couldn't wake her up..." He hesitated for a moment, getting too choked up for his own comfort. "It was one thing to lose the baby. It would have been another to lose Sam too."

Daniel nodded, soberly.

"Now, to see her like this...now, I know how Sara must have felt after Charlie died. Seeing how hurt and confused and numb I was, but unable to do anything except coexist in two different spheres of existence..." Jack sighed. "Made me want to call her and apologize, but I knew it could never do anything. After all these years, after all this time...it would have been hollow. Too hollow."

Daniel bit the inside of his cheek as Jack reached for his coffee mug again, gently touching the liquid with his finger to determine its temperature before he sipped at it again.

-

Jack walked into the bedroom after feeling the slight buzz of the caffeine hit his system. Sam was in the same position she'd been in when he'd first left. Lying in bed with a vacant expression on her face.

Like she'd been after Jolinar's death.

Only that had lasted a total of three days. This...this was worse.

He walked over and knelt in front of her, gently stroking her arm with his hand. "Hey," he murmured, softly.

She managed a ghost of a smile. "Hi."

"You feeling okay?"

She shrugged, wordlessly.

"Daniel said that Grace has been wanting to see you. Why don't you let her in, hm? Might make you feel a little better..."

She closed her eyes and rolled over, non-verbally signaling to him that she wasn't interested in what he had to say.

Jack sighed softly as he stood. Almost instantly, he sat on the bed beside her, putting his hand on her hip. "Sam, I know it hurts...but this...this isn't going to help."

She didn't answer, and he bit his lip somewhat nervously. "Your...reassignment was approved. You have a couple more weeks of bereavement and medical leave, but after that...they want you to report as liaison between the Pentagon and Area 51. It's a...a new position that, uh, will mean a few business trips to Nevada, but overall, you'll be reading those science reports you love so much..."

She turned a watery look to him. "And why...would I want to go back?" She asked after a moment.

"Because you love your job." He said, soberly. "You may not remember that now, but it's true."

"My job..." She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster in her listlessness. "Loving my job did nothing for me, but take away everything I love."

"Hey," Jack chided, gently. "That's not true. I'm still here. Grace is here. Daniel, Teal'c and Vala are out there, and Cam promises to visit when he can, but since he's got your old job, he's not going to be able to just pop in whenever he feels like it."

"And I waited how long to admit my feelings for you because of my job?" She asked, tearfully.

"That was a mutual decision." He countered.

"Based on me and my job." She reminded him. "And...and Daniel's died. Twice. At least twice...and the last time? What? Five years ago? I killed h-"

"No, Sam." He interrupted. "That wasn't you. It was the Replicator."

Sam closed her eyes in agony. "Directly or indirectly, I...and only I...made her what she was." She whispered. "She learned betrayal from Fifth...who learned it from me."

"We killed her." He reminded her, seriously.

She swallowed before she looked away.

"Don't do this, Sam." He pleaded. "Don't shut me out."

She looked back at him for a moment before she rolled over and pulled the covers more tightly around herself.

He sighed softly. "I know how much this hurts, Sam." He said, swallowing.

"I know what you're going through, and things just kept slipping away the more I let my agony overwhelm me." He laid down on the bed beside her.

He touched a hand to her arm as he leveled himself into a position so that he could whisper into her ear. "It wasn't your fault." He whispered, gently dragging his fingers up and down her arm. "It wasn't the Air Force. It wasn't your job. It wasn't anything." He closed his eyes for a moment. "It happened." He paused again. "It happened, and we have to move on."

His wife was quiet, but he could see the trails of the tears on her cheek. He reached out a tender hand as he tried to wipe them from her face. "Come on, Sam. Talk to me."

The next few moments were long, unbelievably long, before she rolled over so that she faced him. She touched a timid finger to his face, gently tracing the lines which had appeared over the last two weeks. She looked at his lips for a moment as her finger slipped from his face before she looked back up into his eyes. She swallowed, silently. "I wish..." She whispered, softly.

"You wish what?" He asked, giving her just enough physical space so that she wouldn't be afraid, but still keeping his hand on her arm to reassure her that he was as tangible as he seemed.

"I wish I could take it all back." She whispered, unable to look him in the eyes. "Do it all over again."

"You mean, you wouldn't marry me?" He asked, softly. He wasn't accusing her of anything; he was just curious, and she could see it in his eyes.

"No, I would marry you..." She admitted, looking down with languid eyes.

"And you wouldn't adopt Grace?" He asked with the same sort of understanding.

He saw the closest thing to a smile she'd had on her face since she'd gone to the hospital flutter onto her lips. "Of course I'd adopt Grace."

His breath hitched as he prepared to ask his last question. "You wouldn't save the world?"

She hesitated, swallowing. "If they needed my help..." She murmured, unable to lie to him in the intimacy of their bedroom as she lay so close to him.

"You would save the world," he finished with a small and tender smile.

She could see the sadness in his eyes, and she inhaled slowly as she looked away into the eternity of her mind. "Things..." she whispered in her state of melancholy. "Things happened the only way they could have." She looked back up at him. "Didn't they?"

He shook his head. "There are a lot of things that could have changed. A million things that could have been different." He sighed softly. "If that wasn't the case, then there wouldn't be such things as alternate realities."

She was silent. There were no tears anymore. Just the stark reality that they were going to have to face.

He studied her face with the love and compassion of a husband and the empathy of someone who'd lost what could and should have been a magnificent future. "But I wouldn't change it," he managed after a long moment.

Knowing his history of wanting to change things for the better, she looked up at him in surprise.

"I wouldn't even change the fact that Charlie died. As strange as it may seem."

She watched him for a long moment, trying to find the words that she wanted to say. Trying to determine whether or not she wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Why?" She finally managed.

"Because as calloused as it sounds, if I hadn't lost Charlie, then I wouldn't have gone to the SGC and taken the Abydos mission." He inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Or if I had, when I finally met you..." He swallowed, seriously. "I would have still been happily married."

She thought about what the future might have looked like if Jack O'Neill had still been married to Sara when she'd met him.

"I'd probably have married Pete when I met him," she whispered. "I wouldn't have needed your...acceptance or...approval...of my engagement."

"And then, where would we be?" He asked, tracing the curves of her face with a weathered hand.

She was silent for a moment before turning mournful eyes to him. "How can you do it? How can you just keep moving on?"

"The same way that you have all of these years," he said, gently. "I know there's something bigger out there. Maybe God. Maybe something else. But because there's this...force...out there, everything happens for a reason. Even the bad things have some sort of...opportunity...in them."

She closed her eyes as she felt the pain of her loss wash over her again. "And...the opportunity here?" She asked, almost too quietly for him to hear.

He gently forced her to look at him. "To love each other more."

She felt a lump grow in her throat, and he looked over at her as he had a thousand times before. "C'mere," he whispered, wrapping his strong arms around her as he pulled her toward him.

She clung to him as she sobbed openly, allowing herself to feel the pain and the grief of the last few weeks as fully as could handle so that her broken heart could begin to mend.

There was a soft knock on the door several minutes later, after Sam's crying had subsided, and they turned their attentions to it as Grace opened the door cautiously. "Mommy?" She whispered, timidly.

Jack looked at Sam, who closed her eyes and wiped her tears from her face before slowly sitting up. "Yes, angel?"

"Are you feeling better today? Uncle Daniel said you might be...at least a little bit."

Sam swallowed, thickly. "I'm...feeling a little better..." She managed a thin smile as she looked back at Grace. "But I could use a hug from my little angel."

"I can give you a hug." She said with a small smile.

"What are you still doing over there, then?" Sam asked, somehow mustering enough energy to deal with the young girl's enthusiasm.

Grace smiled softly as she walked over. Jack helped her onto the bed, and she gently wrapped her arms around her mother in a warm embrace. "I'm sorry you got sick," she whispered. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about it."

Sam pulled away from Grace for a moment as she swallowed. "Never apologize for that," she said soberly.

She felt tears well up in her eyes, and she paused briefly, looking away for a moment as she retained her composure. She turned back to her daughter. "You can't control these dreams, and I don't ever want you to. Sometimes they're perfectly right, and sometimes they're only partially right, but I don't want you to feel like you have to always tell us what is going to happen. We'll know if we need to know, but..."

She felt her emotions slipping again. "Sometimes, we don't...we don't need to know..."

Grace nodded slowly, and Sam reached for her again, hugging her tightly as she let her tears slip down her cheeks.

Jack felt tears moisten his own eyes as he watched the exchange. It was a small step toward recovery, he recognized, but it was a step nonetheless, and he was willing to take everything he could get at this point.


	18. Okay

"I've made a decision," Vala announced a few days later as she walked into the living room with a flair.

"Oh?" Sam asked, listlessly, from where she sat on the couch wearing one of Jack's oversized hooded sweatshirts and yoga pants.

"Yes. I want to learn how to grow some of these marvelous plants I've seen everywhere!" She said, looking at the wilting plants which littered the living room.

At any other time, Sam would have winced slightly at the realization that the living plants had been neglected while she and her family recovered from the loss of their expected baby. But instead, Sam looked at Vala with a somewhat distracted, yet still skeptical eye. "What?"

"I want to learn how to..."

"Garden. I know." She interrupted. "But...why?"

"Because it looks like fun." She said, seriously. "Why else would I do anything?"

Sam bit back a soft chuckle. She still wasn't in full spirits, but Vala's antics were still something to behold. Even in her current state of deep grief. "Truer words were never spoken," Sam said, shaking her head, gently.

"Sam can teach you," Daniel said, walking into the living room with a sandwich and apple slices on a plate which he offered to Sam. "She's good at that kind of stuff."

She tried to wave it away, but he placed it in her lap anyway. She sighed softly before she reached down for one of the apple slices and took a slow and methodical bite out of it. "I'm not that great..."

"You managed to grow violets in a lab without any direct sunlight."

She managed a small sigh. "Right..."

"Come on," he pressed, gently. "It could be fun. And I'm sure Grace would love to try too."

Sam inhaled softly. She wasn't going to win this one. "When Jack gets home, maybe...maybe I'll ask him to take me to get some plants."

Daniel and Vala looked at one another somewhat surprised. Sam hadn't left the house once since she'd gotten home from the hospital. In fact, this was the third day where Sam had actually left the bedroom, and even then, she hadn't been particularly active.

"Maybe we'll take Grace," she murmured, thoughtfully. "So she can choose the flowers."

Vala offered Daniel a small smile in celebration of their friend's slow, but consistent recovery. He managed a small reflection, but his eyes still showed their worry. Talking about leaving the house was one thing. Actually being willing to leave was another.

-

"Mommy!" Grace cried, running up the stairs to the living room after returning home from school.

Sam smiled softly. "Hi, angel," she murmured as her daughter threw her arms around her neck in a warm embrace.

They released one another, and Grace sat beside her mother on the couch, allowing Sam to wrap an arm around her. "How was school today?"

"It was good." She chattered. "It was Celia's birthday today, and her mom came in and brought cupcakes for the class. I got to eat a chocolate one."

Sam was quiet mostly, just grateful to hear Grace's many adventures from the day's events.

"Mrs. Martinez asked if you were feeling better," she said after a moment.

"And what did you say?"

"Well, I told her that I didn't know for sure. I said that you looked like you were feeling a little bit better."

Sam nodded. "I am feeling a little bit better," she admitted.

"Well, she said that she would call and talk to you."

"Thanks for telling me. I'll be expecting her call now." Sam said, kissing the top of her head, gently. She paused for a moment. "Grace?"

"Yes, Mommy?"

"You know how much I love you, don't you?"

Grace turned earnest eyes to her mother. "Yeah, Mommy. I do." She said, nodding.

"Good."

They heard the door open downstairs, and Grace hurried to the top of the stairs. "DADDY!" She cried, excitedly.

Sam slowly stood and walked over to greet her husband as he reached the top of the stairs. "Hi, Grace." He said, offering the little girl a hug.

He looked over at Sam, somewhat surprised. "Hi."

"Hi." She greeted with a sober smile. She wrapped her arms around his neck, gently kissing his lips before she hugged him tightly.

He hesitated for a moment in surprise as he finally relaxed into the embrace, eventually allowing his arms to snake around her waist.

"I missed you," she whispered after a few moments.

"I missed you too," he returned, gently burying his face in her neck for a few moments.

They continued to hold one another before Sam finally pulled away. "You're home early," she said, softly.

He nodded. "President canceled one of our meetings while he's dealing with a crisis in South America."

"Ah."

"Thought I'd come home since I didn't have any other meetings for the rest of the day."

"I'm glad you did," she admitted with a small smile.

He looked down at Grace. "How was your day, kiddo?"

"Good." Grace said, excitedly. "It was Celia's birthday and..."

"You had chocolate cake, didn't you?" He asked, dusting a few small crumbs from her chest.

She gave him a sheepish smile. "Yeah..."

He grinned. "It's the best kind."

Sam smiled softly as she moved to stand beside her husband, wrapping an arm around his waist.

He followed suit, and she rested her cheek on his shoulder, craving physical comfort from him.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek before gently guiding her back to the couch. "Today was a PE day, wasn't it?" He asked as Grace followed them.

Grace nodded. "Coach Hamburg wanted us to do the Presidential Fitness tests."

"And how did you do?" Sam asked, curiously.

"I beat everyone." She said, proudly. "I'm the fastest runner in my class!"

Sam chuckled softly. "Good for you."

"Where are Daniel and Vala?" Jack asked after a moment.

"I'm not sure," she said, looking around the room. "Teal'c's taking Doc on a walk, but...Daniel and Vala..."

"I'm sure they'll turn up." Jack said, gently easing her worry as he kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sure they will too," Sam said with a small smile. She inhaled as she recalled the conversation she'd had with her two friends earlier that morning. "Uh...Jack..."

"Hm?"

"I th-think I want to go out this afternoon."

His eyes widened slightly in soft surprise. "Oh?"

"Vala wants to learn how to plant flowers, and Daniel said that Grace might want to do the same, and so..."

"You want to go get flowers."

She managed a weak smile. "Not alone..."

"Can I come?" Grace asked, enthusiastically.

"Can I come too?" Jack asked with an understanding smile.

"Yeah." She said with a faint smile. She swallowed. "I was hoping you'd ask..."

"Let me change, and we can go."

"I should probably shower and change," Sam said after a moment. "I...I haven't done that yet today..."

"If that's what you want..." He said, looking over at her, soberly.

She smiled softly. "I think it is."

"All right then, I'll keep an eye on Grace while you shower and change, and then, we'll switch."

"I can read a book, Daddy." Grace said with an annoyed roll of her eyes as she reached in her backpack. "I'm a big girl, you know."

Sam tried to hide a small chuckle as Jack stood and bowed low in high apology. "My deepest apologies, mademoiselle, for having forgotten your age and sophistication."

Grace giggled. "You're silly, daddy."

Sam stood, reaching for her husband's hand. She gently interlaced her fingers with his as she looked at him. He could see that she still was tired and worn; she'd been truly broken when they'd lost their baby. And even though there were more good times than bad times these days, she was still a little lost in her grief. "Come on, let's go get ready." She said, mustering a small smile. "If we take too much longer, Grace is going to have finished her book, and we'll still not be ready to go."

Jack chuckled softly at her attempt to be humorous. "Yes...let's leave the "big girl" alone."

Grace had already sat on the couch, engrossed in her most recent read, and Sam gently tugged on Jack's hand.

He followed her, wordlessly, and closed the door behind them as they went into the bedroom. "How are you feeling today?"

She managed a small smile. "I'm okay. I just..." She didn't know how to word her feelings.

"It's okay to say that you missed me," he said with a faint smile as he remembered a time when she'd said the same to him.

"I did." She said, softly. "A lot."

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I love you," he murmured, holding her close for another few moments.

She clung to him. "I love you too," she whispered as she buried her face in his chest in an effort to feel the tangibility of his comfort.

"Hey, why don't you and I go out tonight, hm?" Jack asked after a few moments. "I'll take you to dinner, we can do something fun, a movie maybe..."

"Dinner would be great." She admitted as she looked back up at him. "I just...I need to do something different."

"I'll ask Danny to watch Grace then." He said, nodding. "Once we get back from the whole gardening expedition."

"It'll be fun, I think..." She murmured softly. "...digging around in the dirt." She turned a wry smile up to him. "Haven't really done that since I last took soil samples...which was a LONG time ago."

He chuckled softly as he bent in to kiss her lips gently. The lingering kiss set Sam's body on fire in a way she'd almost forgotten it could be. "Now," he murmured as he pulled away from her. "Off to the shower with you. I'll go make some reservations for dinner and change my clothes and we'll take Grace to pick some flowers."

"I love you," she whispered with a fierce passion she'd recently thought herself incapable.

He looked over at her, the same quiet passion in his eyes as he caught her gaze. "I know. I love you too." He swallowed. "We're gonna be okay."

She nodded. "I know."

A faint smile fluttered onto his lips. "Good. It's nice to know that you know."

"It's nice to know." She admitted softly before she turned and slipped into the bathroom.


	19. Retirement

_Three months later:_

Dressed in sharply pressed dress blues, Sam walked into her husband's office.

"Colonel Carter," Marcie Johnson greeted from her desk just inside the door, quickly snapping to attention.

"At ease, Lieutenant," Sam said with a small smile. "Is my husband in?"

"Yes, but he's in a meeting with someone."

"Oh." Sam said, nodding. "Do you know if he'll be much longer? I have some things I should be finishing..."

The door opened, and Sam turned her attention to her husband's office door.

"Well, Hank, it's nice to know I'll be leaving the office in good hands."

Hank Landry stepped out of Jack's office as the two shook hands. Sam coughed slightly to attract their attention, and both men looked over. Hank grinned as he walked over and offered his hand. "Colonel Carter."

"General Landry," she greeted with a sincere smile. "It's nice to see you again."

"And you. How are you?"

"I'm fine." She said, seriously. "Thank you for asking. How are you?"

"Oh...sad to leave the SGC, but excited to see this knucklehead settling down."

Sam followed Landry's gaze to her husband who had chosen to study his dark loafers.

"Settling down?" She asked, confused. "I thought we did that when we finally tied the knot and then when we adopted Grace..."

Landry laughed. "Retirement is for the lucky these days!"

Sam swallowed in surprise as she looked back at Jack. "Retirement..."

Landry caught her surprise and quickly quieted.

She looked over at Marcie, who had bowed her head. Obviously, she'd known about Jack's retirement. Sam turned an expectant look to her husband, who motioned for her to enter his office. "Uh, Lieutenant...hold all my calls and...tell Ted that I'll try to be there for our two o' clock, but..."

She nodded in understanding. "Yes, sir."

He swallowed before walking back into his office and closing the door.

"Wow...never realized I'd be the last to hear about that one!" Sam said, coldly. "When did you decide to retire? And when did you decide not to tell me?"

He sighed softly. It hadn't been a conscious decision not to tell her. Just a sad consequence of the way things had turned out. "Didn't really decide not to tell you…"

"Oh?" She asked, skeptically.

"Look, I…I've been thinking about this for a long time. Since about the time we got married, in fact."

"I know."

"But when we lost the baby, I…" He paused for a moment. "I came back to work and filled out the papers."

She inhaled softly. "And I wasn't particularly supportive during that whole time…"

"You had a lot on your mind."

"So did you," she reminded, gently.

"I know."

She swallowed as they lapsed into silence. "So…how long before you're, uh, retired?"

"Three weeks. Then, Landry takes over while I go on terminal leave."

She nodded slowly. "Right…"

"So…what'd you need?"

"Hm?" She asked, curiously.

"As much as I love to see you at the office, it doesn't happen much since you report directly to the Joint Chiefs…what'd you come to see me about?"

"Oh." She said, snapping out of her reverie. "Right. Uh…well, your retirement kind of makes my thought a little…late. I should probably talk to Landry about it, I guess."

"I've still got three weeks here."

She bit her lip. "I…I don't think you need me here. My position is a joke, really, because Major Davis still knows more about what's going on at Area 51 than I do, but…"

"Stop right there," he said, raising a hand.

She looked at him, surprised, as he retrieved an envelope from his desk.

He handed it to her, and she opened it cautiously. She let her eyes look from her task back to him for a moment before they flickered back to the envelope in her hands. She pulled a piece of paper from it before inhaling sharply. "I'm being reassigned."

He nodded. "Yep."

"Stargate Command."

He nodded again.

"Three weeks."

"Perfect timing."

"There's no specific assignment written here…"

"There'll be a new commander – Landry will be here."

She was silent as she nodded slowly. "Guess that's a…good thing…"

"You don't want to go back?"

"To SG-1? To the science teams? Sure, but…"

"Maybe you'll do something else."

She raised an eyebrow. "Like?"

"Who knows?"

She sighed softly. "What about the house?"

"We'll sell it."

"What about Grace?"

"We'll bring her."

Sam inhaled. "She's not going to want to leave her friends."

"She'll be fine, Sam."

"I know, but I just…"

"Worry." Jack said with a small smile. "I know. You're a mother."

She swallowed. "What if…what if I don't want to go back?"

"And miss hanging out with Daniel and Vala and Teal'c?"

She swallowed. "That's not what I mean…"

"I know."

"If I go back, there's a higher likelihood that I go on a mission and just not come home. Is that fair to put you and Grace through that?"

"We're survivors. I think we can handle it."

"And what about Cassie? I mean, she comes over…"

"I think she can live her own life, Sam." Jack said, softly. "She is a legal adult."

Sam exhaled slowly. "Stargate Command. For the hundred and seventy-fifth time…"

He laughed softly. "Not quite that many."

"It feels like it's been a lifetime since I was last there."

"It has been," he said, seriously.

"It's safe. Secure."

"Nothing wrong with either."

"You want me to go, don't you?" She asked, studying him closely.

He put his hands on her arms as he stepped toward her. "I think it would be very good for you. I think Colorado would be good for Grace. And I can't think of a reason that it wouldn't be good for me to visit with my friends…my family…like we used to in the "good, old days"."

"What if we get another general like Bauer?"

"We won't."

"But what if we do?"

"We won't." He assured.

"How do you know?"

"Because I trust Hank Landry to make the right decision."

She looked pensive, with troubled eyes and pursed lips. "You're not making the decision?"

"It was Hank's post, and he'll be in charge. I might end up making the actual face-to-face invitation, but it'll be his decision."

She nodded slowly.

"Hey…"

"Hm?" She asked, looking back up at him.

"You can do this. You've done it before, and if I know you, you'll do it again."

She chuckled softly. "All right…I guess we're moving to Colorado."

He nodded with a faint smile. "Wanna come with me this weekend to see if we can find a place before we get there?"

"Just the two of us? Or Grace too?"

"Just the two of us this time," he murmured. "Then, we'll bring Grace out when we're ready to move."

"I'll call Cassie," she said, nodding slowly as she turned to leave.

"Hey," he called after her.

She turned back. "Hm?"

"I love you."

She smiled softly. "Love you too, Jack."

"You can do this."

"Thanks."


	20. SGC

"Grace is asleep," Sam said, walking into the living room of the new house with a small smile.

"I told ya..." He chuckled from where he sat by the fireplace.

"I'll just have to remind myself that you're always right," she chuckled affectionately.

He smiled.

"Hey," she said, looking over at her almost-retired husband as she sat down beside him. "What are your plans for tomorrow?"

"I don't know," he murmured as he put his arm around her. "Thought I'd drop Grace off at school, come home...read a book...take a nap..." He chuckled. "I mean, Landry's pretty much taken over in DC."

"Which is why you're here in Colorado Springs with me." She grinned as she leaned her cheek on his shoulder, affectionately. There was a small pause for a moment before she looked back up at him. "So you're just going to enjoy your retirement tomorrow."

"Better believe it."

She bit her lip. "Landry called this morning while you were helping the movers."

"Oh?"

She nodded. "Apparently, he wants me to report to the SGC first thing tomorrow morning."

"Did he mention your new assignment? Are you back on SG-1?"

"I don't know. Probably."

"Well, if the new commander's smart, he'll keep you right there at the top…"

She blushed softly before she looked over at him. "Any idea who the new commander is? Reynolds? Mitchell? Someone else?"

"No idea."

"This is a military base. I KNOW you know." She said, raising an eyebrow.

He shook his head with a dead-panned expression. "That was discussed at the end of my last meeting. I think I was on..." He thought for a moment. "...level 29 of my game..."

She gave him a pointed look before he chuckled. "All I know is that Landry made a suggestion, and even though the IOA cringed a little, they accepted his decision."

"Oh brother." She said, shaking her head. "Now, we've got a shrub..."

Jack hid a small chuckle as he shrugged. "Who knows? This person might be a little more generous to the science department. Actually listen to them for a change..."

"Yeah right." She laughed, sardonically. "The closest we ever got - really - was General Hammond. I mean, you were better than Landry and all of you were better than Bauer, but...you're just not scientists..."

He leaned in and kissed her nose affectionately. "Okay...so...probably not a sympathetic General."

"Probably not." She smiled as she leaned into his embrace more comfortably.

She rested her cheek on his shoulder. "This is nice," she murmured as her eyes began to close of their own accord.

He chuckled as he ran his fingers through her hair. "Yeah. Really nice."

"Don't do that," she murmured. "Puts me to sleep..."

"Hey, you had a long day between putting up with your retired husband, your now six-year-old daughter, and the movers." He chuckled. "Sleep is good. You deserve sleep."

"Um-kay..." She smiled as she gave in.

He waited for a few moments until he knew she was asleep before he smiled and kissed the top of her blond head. "You're going to be a great commander, Brigadier General Samantha Carter..." He murmured, proudly, as he leaned his cheek on the top of her head, affectionately.

-

Sam stood just outside the commander's office at the SGC as she gently tugged at her dress uniform jacket, somewhat nervously. She inhaled before she knocked on the open door. The back of the leather chair was facing her, and she felt the intense desire to learn who was commanding the facility come back. "Colonel Samantha Carter reporting as ordered." She announced with a snappy salute.

The chair pivoted and her eyebrows shot up when she saw Jack dressed in his own set of blues. "What are you doing here?" She asked, dropping her professional decorum.

He grinned as he stood. "Welcoming the new commander of the SGC..."

She looked behind her in confusion as he continued. "Brigadier General Samantha Carter."

She froze before she turned back to him. "I knew you knew." She finally managed.

He grinned. "Whaddaya think? You wanna be "the man"?"

She gave him a strange look.

"I mean..."the WO-man!" He corrected.

She shook her head. "This...can't...be happening..." She managed.

"Because the IOA was stupid enough to bring you back to Earth from Atlantis?" He asked, more seriously.

"For starters? Yeah."

"Woolsey backed you up."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I was surprised myself." He admitted. "But these last few years leading Atlantis has taught him something about "realistic" expectations. And he wanted to make it up to you by offering you this post."

She nodded slowly before looking away as she thought about the last year of their lives. "Jack, I don't know..."

"I think it would be good for you," he admitted, gently touching her arm. "Getting back to work. You know...the stuff you actually like to do..."

She bit her lip. "I wasn't even working when I lost the baby," she murmured mournfully.

He walked over and wrapped his arms around her. "Sh," he comforted. "You can do this, and I think this will help put you in a good place. Maybe we'll adopt another kid. A baby this time."

"It's hard to adopt a baby, Jack...and we got lucky with Grace..."

"Do you think we can get through this?" Jack asked, softly forcing her to look up at him.

She nodded slowly.

"Then, I think you should take the job. We'll come up with ways to do everything else we want to do, but for now...just take the job."

"You're stubborn, you know that?" She asked with a faint smile.

He shrugged as a smile played on his lips.

She grinned. "Okay, Jack. I'll do it."

"I knew you would." He smiled. "Now...I believe everyone is waiting for us downstairs in the Gate Room."

She tensed. "Everyone?"

"Daniel, Vala, and Teal'c included." He grinned.

"Do they know?"

"Nope." He grinned. "Made sure of that myself."

She laughed. "Okay. Let's go."

"Atta girl!" He said, standing and opening the door. "You're gonna like that chair, by the way." He said as she walked out of the office and into the corridor which led them to the elevator which would allow them to walk in the left door of the Gate Room. "It's nice and comfortable."

"You had your chair sent over from the Pentagon, didn't you, Jack?"

"Yes, well..." He chuckled.

"Thank you," she said, looking over at him with a soft eyes.

"Anything for you, Sam." He said, soberly. "You know that."

She fingered the wedding and engagement rings on her left ring finger before she grinned. "Yes, I do."

"Now," Jack said in more of a business tone. "How do you want to be presented? General Carter or General O'Neill?"

She bit her lip somewhat flummoxed. "I can't do either without feeling like an imposter."

He raised an eyebrow as she explained. "I either sound like I'm my dad with General Carter. Or I sound like I'm you with General O'Neill."

"Ah." He said, nodding. "Well, we could change your name, but that will take time...and the ceremony's in a few minutes."

Sam chuckled. "How about at work I stay "Carter", and at home, I go back to being Mrs. O'Neill, hm?"

"I like the sound of that," he smiled.

She grinned. "Then, it's settled."

"General Carter, it is." He said, nodding to Walter, who walked into the Gate Room and up to the microphone.

Sam inhaled nervously from where she was being hidden for the moment. "I'm a little scared," she admitted. "I don't know if I can do this."

Jack looked over at her with a serious look in his eye. "You can, Sam. I may be skeptical about a lot of things, but never about you. Or your potential."

Checking to make sure they were still hidden somewhat, Sam leaned over to kiss him lightly. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." He smiled before the doors opened so that he could walk through and introduce the new commander to her command.

"It's good to be back with you," Jack said into the microphone. "Life's come full-circle for me. Fifteen years ago, I walked into this facility for the first time, unsure of what I would find on the other side of this ring. And now, I come to introduce to you your new commander as my final act in the United States Air Force."

He noticed Daniel's thoughtful smile in the crowd and Teal'c's pleasant, yet stoic, stance.

"A year after I went through the Stargate for the first time, when she was assigned to my team, I met a remarkable woman without whom the Stargate Program could never have operated more than the one time, if at all. And it is my pleasure, as my final act in the Service, to announce Samantha Carter's promotion to Brigadier General. And...to formally introduce her to you as your new base commander."

Vala clapped enthusiastically as the door opened to reveal Sam in her uniform as she walked into the Gate room with the same confidence to which Jack had first found himself attracted the first time he'd seen her walk into the briefing room fourteen years earlier.

She gave him a special smile as she joined him on the ramp.

Jack looked over at Walter, who began reading the prescribed letter of the President's special trust in her as Jack began removing the Colonel insignias from her epaulettes and pinning a single silver star in their places.

Jack grinned as he finally finished and stood back to look at her proudly. Then, he pulled out the small slip of paper with her oath on it. Realizing that Walter was now finished, Jack looked up at Sam with a small wink to put her at ease.

"Raise your right hand and repeat after me, if you please," he said, looking over at his wife for a moment. She nodded as he began. "I, state your name..."

"I," she hesitated with a twinkle in her eyes. "Samantha Carter," she finally finished.

"Having been appointed a Brigadier General in the United States Air Force," he continued.

"Having been appointed a Brigadier General in the United States Air Force," she repeated.

"Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend," he said, looking up at her.

"Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend," she continued, looking straight ahead in the solemnity of the occasion.

"The Constitution of the United States..."

"The Constitution of the United States..."

"Against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"Against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same," he read.

"That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..."

"That I take this obligation freely..."

"That I take this obligation freely..."

"Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion..."

"Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion..."

"And that I will well and faithfully discharge..."

"And that I will well and faithfully discharge..."

"The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter..."

"The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter," she said, inhaling deeply.

"So help me God." Jack finished, looking back up at her.

"So help me God." She said, soberly.

He grinned. "Brigadier General Samantha Carter." He said, carefully raising his right hand to the brim of his hat as he offered her a snappy salute.

Her eyes were moist as she shared the final salute of her husband's career.

"Congratulations." He said, reaching over and shaking her hand.

"Thank you," she managed, softly.

Jack made his way back to the microphone. "I present to you, Stargate Command, your new base commander, Brigadier General Samantha Carter."

There was loud applause as Sam made her way to the microphone somewhat nervously.

"It has been my privilege to spend the majority of my career here at Stargate Command in particular," she began slowly. "I have worked with some wonderful commanders, and I hope that I can lead you in the way that you deserve."

"Hear, hear!" Daniel cried with a grin.

Sam smiled widely as the crowd erupted into another round of applause.

"It is my privilege to accept this command, General O'Neill." She said, looking over at her husband. "And I hope to do you and your predecessors proud." She looked back at the crowd. "Thank you."

She stepped away from the microphone, and Jack smiled as he escorted her Daniel's lab for the small reception he'd planned for her and the rest of SG-1. "You could never disappoint me, Sam." He admitted when things had quieted down around them a little.

She turned a grateful smile to him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"So YOU'RE the new commander!" Daniel grinned as he served up the cake.

Sam grinned. "It was a surprise to me too, believe me."

"Really?" Vala asked around a mouthful of cake, surprised.

Sam chuckled softly. "My husband," she gently elbowed him in the ribs as he tried to eat his cake. "Managed to keep me in the dark somehow."

"Ah." She said, nodding.

"Hey, I gotta keep the home fires burning somehow," Jack winked as he looked over at his wife.

"Okay, TMI!" Daniel cried, closing his eyes as he grimaced.

Sam smiled as Vala swatted the back of his head affectionately. "Oh, Daniel..."

As Daniel, Vala, and Teal'c occupied themselves with their usual teasing banter, Sam pulled her husband into a corner of the room. "Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"This was a great surprise."

He grinned. "Thanks."

"C'mere." She invited, pulling his tie gently.

"Ooh..." He grinned, expecting a kiss as he closed his eyes.

She smiled mischievously as she shoved her plateful of cake into his face.

She looked quite proud as he wiped the icing from his eyes before he opened them. "And that was for..."

"You, of all people should know, Jack..." She grinned. "All's fair in love and war."

"Oh, believe me...I do." He said, leaning into kiss her as she squealed good-naturedly. The icing and cake which had adorned his face was now adorning both faces as Daniel, Vala, and Teal'c just stared at the couple, who were currently unaware that anyone else was in the room.

"I think this is our cue to go..." Vala said, leaning over to Teal'c.

"Indeed." The Jaffa agreed.

"It's like a train wreck." Daniel whined. "You can't take your eyes away from it."

Vala chuckled as she shook her head, grabbing Daniel by the tie and pulling him out of the room, causing the other two to follow.

Sam looked over at her husband. "I think they're gone, Mr. O'Neill."

He nodded. "Yes, but there are cameras..."

Sam chuckled as she kissed his nose. "D'oh. Rain check?"

"Oh, you better believe it."

"I think I have some meetings to go to."

"Like that?" He laughed.

"I'll clean my face!"

"I should hope so!" He teased. "I'm not sure how everyone would feel if they thought they're commander couldn't even control her cake let alone a base."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Them's fightin' words..." She drawled.

"Yeah? So? Whatcha gonna do about it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in mock defiance.

"Someday..." She began, slowly with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "When you least expect it...you'll remember this moment, and you'll know who got the last laugh."

"D'oh."

"I'm telling you...all's fair in love and war, darlin'." She winked as she slipped past him to retrieve a napkin.

He laughed. "Love you, General Carter."

"That's Mrs. O'Neill to you." She teased as she leaned in to kiss him gently.

"I think you kiss better as a General," he teased.

"Jack!"

"Maybe it's because I'm a civilian now...and you're still military...hm..."

She shook her head. "Wash your face, Jack." She said, throwing a towel to him. "Before you hurt your brain trying to figure out how to work this to your advantage."

"Yes, ma'am." He winked, causing her to smile. She was married to a crazy, crazy man. That much was certain.

-

_Stay tuned for the next installment of the series: "Wife and Mother - Master and Commander"_


End file.
